Busy Weekend - The Way We Like It

Full Moon

I had to share the full moon image because it was freaking spectacular.  I left mom's house around 8:55pm and when I pulled on the road to get to my house, the moon just filled up the sky.  I turned around and called mom to tell her to get her flip flops on because I had to show her the moon.  I wish I had my camera at the time I first saw the moon, but this photo still is awesome!  Of course people driving by probably thought I was crazy taking photos, but I loved it!

Saturday was a busy day up until about 2:00pm when I went home with a headache.  I worked on making beads and mom worked on getting her toilet fixed.  Mom and I are jinxed with toilets.  We have to change the innards for both of our toilets every few years and it is a pain in the butt (hmm, didn't think of that as a pun).  I am going to have to change the innards of my second bathroom toilet again and it has been less than six months since I replaced the innards the first time. Like I said, we are jinxed with our toilets.

Here are the beads I made.  I am in a purple phase right now and I am sure I will move in soon.  I made the sugar beads for an enameled skull pendant that I have a design for a necklace.  The other beads are a flat bead, clear with frit, and hollow beads with frit.  I haven't made hollow beads in a long time, because I am not too good at making them.  Overall I am pretty happy with the way the beads turned out.

Sugar Beads

Flat Bead

Hollow Beads - Clear with frit

Today I worked on finishing up enameling the leaf bowls from last weekend and mom finished up sawing out a bowl and a piece we are giving a friend for her baby shower.  I can't wait to see the finished piece with the enamels.  Here is a peek of the bowls and the baby gift.

Large Red/Orange/Yellow Leaf Bowl

Small Brown Leaf Bowl

Large Yellow Leaf Bowl

Small Green Leaf Bowl

Sawed Out Flame Bowl

Lady Aduil - Baby's Name

While mom was working on cleaning, vacuuming and washing her car and my car I worked on taking photographs of a lot of our inventory and making two necklaces.  Here are the two necklaces I worked on.

Mom Vacuuming my car

Purple Haze Necklace

Purple Hollow Bead Necklace

I think I am done for the day.  I will work on posting inventory on Etsy this week, but it isn't happening tonight!  I need to go and make sure mom is done for the night, because she will keep going, like the freaking Energizer Bunny, until she collapses.  She is an idiot, but I love her anyway.

Oh, three things I am happy/positive today:
1.  Both mom and I got a lot accomplished today
2.  I love what I do - enameling, jewelery, lampworking, etc.
3.  I have a wonderful, awesome, great, fantastic mom!!!! (oh and mom starts her new job tomorrow - so I am excited about that)

I hope you all had a great weekend and got a lot accomplished like we did.
Peace out!

Earth laughs in flowers. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Hamatreya"

Fuchsia Hybrida

The above quote saids it all.  Enjoy!

Blue Flag Iris

Dahlia with curls

Strawflower

Wishbone Flower

Dahlia Nestled in the leaves

Butterfly and Unknown Flower

I am still working on re-sizing my flowers and have just thought about working on mom's images.  So, more and more flowers in the future.

Ok, three positive things that happened today:
1.  Sold 15 of my ceramic pieces today
2.  Money from sale will go to buy enamels or more glass - YIPPEE!!!!
3.  Created a necklace called Purple Haze - photos in the future

Shopped Till We Dropped

Well, ABR Imagery was freaking awesome!  Sooo much glass, so little time.  There was so much to see and so many things my grubby little paws could have grabbed and ran away with.  Instead mom and I just ran away with some Messy Glass, a pair of pliers and two small sized mandrels (don't worry, we did pay for it).  I could have spent hours in there.  HEAVEN.  This is what we bought.  I so can't wait to play with the glass and pliers!  Juls you were right, those guys were awesome to work with!

Mandrels

Beautiful, beautiful glass

Pliers

When mom and I got home I worked on enameling several bowls and two pendants.  One of the pendants will be sent to Lori for the Cup of Bead Soup in November.  I was only able to finish one of the bowls before mom and I called it quits, we were wipped out come 6:30pm. I need to finish the backs of four leaf bowls and I will work on those bowls this weekend.  I really like how the blues came out on lotus pendant and the colors in the flower power bowl came out better than I thought!

Blue Lotus Pendant

Transparent Oranges & Transparent Yellow Bowl

This is the picture of the tweaked photo I created on Picnik of the pendant going to Lori.  I am in love with Picnik, I have been having a lot of fun with changing the look of the images.  I am like a little kid with a new toy.  I am easily amused.

I was reading Amy's blog, Copper Diem, and she is posting three positive things from each day.  She got the idea from a blogger named Clare at Three Beautiful Things blog.  I am more of a glass is half empty than half full kinda girl.  I have been trying to be more positive, but sometimes it is just not in my make-up to be positive.  It about killed me being positive when mom was looking for a job - she was sure I was going to have an aneurysm before it was all done.  I may not write down the three things every day, but I will try to post something each blog or every once in awhile - don't want to bore you all to death.

Today's three positive things:
1.  Coffee - enough said!
2.  Seeing my friends after being away from work for two days
3.  Working on jewelry tonight

Torching, Sewing, Playing on Picnik

Our torches - I have the Lynx and mom the Bobcat

Today was an awesome day!  I was going to get over to mom's at 7:00am to work on enameling/torching, but I ended up calling her and told her we were going to sleep in!  Mom wasn't feeling good last night and I was tired; this is the weekend and we should sleep in a little bit!

Mom and I changed up on what we were planning on working on today.  Mom decided that she was going to work on the baby blanket and I was going to help her by cutting the ribbon (my only contribution to this blanket except for buying the material).  I love, love, love how the blanket turned out. 

To me this is funny.  I was out torching and mom comes out (after three and half hours) and says she is done.  I asked, "With both of the blankets", and she says, "You have no concept of sewing do you?"

I am showing you a picture of the blanket - folded up, but I have tweeked what the picture looks like in case my friend reads my blog.  I don't want her to know exactly what the blanket is going to look like.

Like I said, I torched while mom was working on the sewing.  I think I made up enough beads for a necklace, three pairs of earrings and a bracelet.  I also finished making up beads to go with two beads I worked on yesterday.  It felt so good to be torching again.

I also cleaned up the beads that I am sending Lori Anderson for the Cup of Bead Soup.  I also tweeked the pictures, on Picnik, so she doesn't know exactly what she is receiving.  Sorry Lori, you will have to wait for the package to arrive to see what you are really receiving.  Yes, I know I am not a nice person :)

Beads with Heat Sensor

Beads as Neon

I had a lot of fun finding the effects to change the bead images.  I am going to have to play with Picnik more often.

I also made these two beads yesterday and I am really happy with how they turned out.  I made a couple more beads today to go with these.  I have an idea of how I want to use them, but mom and I are waiting for a package to arrive, with supplies, before I can make the idea I have come to fruition.

Tomorrow morning I will be enameling, have to finish filing and sanding tonight.  Then in the afternoon it is off to ABR.  I was talking to a few friends and they said that ABR is awesome; the people are nice and the glass is to die for.  I am taking my camera and I have my credit card, so I am ready to shop.  I will post pictures of the stuff we buy.  I am so excited.

I hope everyone had a great beading weekend and a wonderful coming week! 

Take care all.  Peace out!

Scenic Tour and Much Much More

Mom and I took vacation on Friday and this coming Monday.  We wanted to drop off our commissioned piece to the woman in Monticello, go to Kokomo to the Kokomo Glass Factory because I heard that they sold Messy Glass and go to Inspired Fire to pay off my Lucio piece so I could take it home and drool all over it!

Mom had to go and pick up her new glasses and go to the doctor, in the morning.  While she was doing that I worked on re-sizing images and posting them on Etsy.  I got four bowls, two pendants, one necklace and two pairs of earrings listed.  I wanted to list a couple of other bowls, but I realized when I was cleaning up my external hard drive I went a little delete happy and deleted out all the photos I took of those bowls.  So, when it finally decides to stop raining, I need to re-take all those photos again.  JOY!
After mom was done at the doctor's, we stopped at Inspired Fire to pick up my Lucio piece.  Sharon, the owner, was nice enough to let me put the piece on lay-away.  I already have one whip girl and a book by Lucio and I have been eyeing this piece for several years now.  When Lucio was here last year, they had an open house and he gave a class, I finally broke down and bought the whip girl.  Sorry, I have to show off our pieces, because mom has two of his pieces also. 

Sorry about the poor quality.  I took the photos at my house, no light box and crappy lighting.  I also had one of my cats who was very curious about what I was doing.

Whip Girl With Banana

Whip Girl with Goblet

My cat was curious for each picture.  I took her down and of course she had to come right back up.

Sorry, kind of bad position

Reville wanted to play too

Lucio Book

Lucio Signature - he drew Venice

Mom's Lucio Pieces

After dropping my piece off at home, we started our scenic tour of Indiana.  We stopped in Monticello to drop off the commissioned piece (bracelet and a pair of earrings).  We then headed to the Kokomo Glass factory.  We were on roads we never even heard about, it was kind of cool.  Both mom and I love our Tom Tom!!!!  We finally got to Kokomo Glass Factory and they didn't even have Messy Glass, I was bummed!  We even found out that the Sonic in Kokomo was closed.  WTH!!!!  Mom and I did stop at Treece's, located in Rossville, for dinner.  That made up for Sonic being closed, at least a little bit.

Today I worked on making beads for Lori of Pretty Things.  She is doing a Cup of Bead Soup each month.  I asked Lori if I could participate and she said yes.  I will be the featured artist for November.  I know that is a long time from now, but I wanted to get the beads and enameled pendant done now, because you never know what might pop up in the future.  I now need to work on creating a button to send her with a link so she can add it to her blog.  I never have done this before so this should be interesting.

Tomorrow will be an enameling day so I hope the sun is out so I can take photographs of the finished pieces.  Then Monday morning mom and I will be sewing a baby blanket and a blanket for an adult (I should probably say mom will be doing most of it, but I hope she will show me what to do.  I don't sew).  Then we are going to ABR Imagery, in Bloomington, IN for Messy Glass.  Of course I will call to make sure they are open to the public and that they do have Messy Glass in stock before we drive all the way down there.

P.S. I just created my first treasury on Etsy.  That was a lot of fun looking at different sellers on Etsy.  I haven't figure out how to get the PrtScn to work on the new computer, so here is the link:  http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4c704b3df84a8eef945ea373/falling-leaves-of-autumn?index=0

Bring on the Flowers

Mom and I haven't made anything new since Sunday, so I thought I would post more flower photos today.

Enjoy the show!

Bee and a Sunflower

Angel's Trumpet White

Dahlia with dew drops

I think this might be a Dahlia (I didn't take a photo of the name tag)

Dahlia with spider webs

Texas Blue Bonnet (Isn't the middle awesome!)

Butterfly on Zinnias

Hybrid Blanket Flower

I do have to say the one of the great things about taking photos of the flowers is that I am learning the names of the flowers.  I could tell you what a rose was and that was about it.

I hope to have more photos re-sized for next weeks show and tell.  I might even have mom's flower photos updated and ready to post too.

Enjoy the rest of your week!  It is hump day!!!

Busy Little Bees

New Enameling Kiln

This was the weekend mom and I put the new enameling kiln to work, it was fabulous!  I am so happy with this new kiln, except for one thing.  Who in the world puts a metal handle on a kiln, exactly my question too.  You will not believe how many times I almost touched the handle, and it did get freaking hot, before I remembered to use the hot pad.  Seriously!!!!  Except for that one little thing I love, love, love our kiln!!!  There are a few more tools we need to order: more trivets, more screens, more enamels, and more sifters, but otherwise we are in business.

Mom pulling out our first piece

Bowls right out of the kiln

While I worked on enameling our bowls, mom worked on straightening out her garage, aka our studio.  One side of the studio will be for our lampworking and the other side of the studio will be for metals and enameling.  We bought this tall stand to put all our of metals and enamels on, so it is now out and we can see what we have or what we need to order.  Mom did an amazing job at orgainzing, now I just need to be good and keep it clean.  The other thing that was cool was that mom used shelves, that my great grandfathered made, to use to hold our enamels.  SWEET!

Images of the studio set-up:

Storage area of glass and work area

Moretti Glass Area

Boro glass area

Stained glass & Photo area

Enameling Area

Metals & Enameling Storage

Enamel storage area

Mom and I also went shopping on Sunday for some beads, because who can have enough beads???  We went to one of our favorite stores, Vons, located on Purdue.  They have beads hanging from the ceiling and it goes around the whole store.  I didn't have any beads in mind but they were having a sale on some beads so mom and I snagged some strands.  We also bought some chain, that I have some ideas on using but those ideas have to wait for the silk ribbon to arrive.  Here are photos of what we bought.

Jasper Beads

We think - cultured pearls

We think - cultured pearls

Rainbow beads - At least I think - will need to check the tag

After our shopping trip we came back to moms to work in the studio.  While I finished enameling mom worked on the commissioned pieces we need to complete and two pairs of earrings.  I finished enameling the last of 10 bowls and a lotus pendant.  Like I said we were busy little bees this weekend.  Of course it kept us from shopping, except for the small purchase we made at Vons. 

So enjoy the enameling and jewelry show.

Commissioned bracelet and earrings - mom made three sets of earrings for the customer to choose from.  Mom used beads that I made to create the bracelet and earrings.

Pink Bracelet

Transparent pink with pink frit

Two different pink earrings

White base w/ pink frit earrings

Earrings mom made from lampwork beads I made a while ago. 

Purple Air Pocket beads

Watermelon beads

Now onto the enameled lotus pendant and the 10 enameled bowls.

Transparent purple, transparent yellow lotus pendant

Transparent blues & transparent greens

Transparent grays & transparent yellows

White & transparent oranges

Three different pinks

Transparent purples & transparent grays

Rainbow Bowl

Red, White, Blue plate

Transparent blues & transparent grays

Small white & turquoise

Transparent greens & transparent oranges

Well, you made it to the end - Congratulations!

I do have to say working in the garage is like a sauna, and that is one way to lose weight!  I think it was 100 degrees in there while we were working - sweating not my idea of fun, but well worth it if I can enamel at home.  Of course winter will be here shortly and that should be interesting.

I hope you had as busy as a weekend as mom and I did.  I hope to have better photos of the bowls later, I was trying to get the photos done before mom called me in for dinner (yes mom made us dinner).

Peace out!