Deliciousness

They're not really teardrop beads. More like eggs. But how appetizing is that? Thinking Raku Eggs may not be the catchiest name, but I just love these little beads.

Scrumptious, aren't they?

Underneath the fingerprints, they're scrumptious. Geez. Nothing like having a good camera to point out clumsy handling. Note to self: Buff the beads in your t-shirt immediately prior to the photoshoot.

So after I get new pics taken, these little babies will be in my shop.

Beads n Mandrels

The latest two torch sessions have yielded these beads. I've been working with Double Helix Kronos for a special order to replicate previous beads. The first time on the torch was last week after more than a week away. The second time was yesterday morning/afternoon.

As you can see, I sometimes make two beads per mandrel when using the same colors. After four years on the torch, I still have problems with kiss and dents on my beads when annealing at 940 degrees if they touch within the first hour of being placed in my kiln. I'm not sure why. I make sure the 'glow' is completely gone from the beads before placing them in the kiln. And 940 degrees is at the lower end of the annealing scale for soft glass. I don't have problems with my beads cracking or breaking after coming out of the kiln. But if they touch....ooooh, I just know they're going to be ruined and unwanted!

Since I was a child and read Cheaper By the Dozen, I've always been obsessed with efficiency and working smarter, not harder. Yes. I have always been a nerd. It even translates to how I decide to squeegee the water off my shower doors (vertically, rather than horizontally is faster for me. I'm not saying this is right for everyone). It's a sickness. I try not to impose it on others.

Anyway. Making more than one bead per mandrel helps me in several ways. I do not spend an extra minute heating up a mandrel for each mandrel. I do not spend an extra minute cooling down a mandrel before putting it in the kiln. It also allows me to eyeball more accurately the beads I make to get them more evenly sized. Sometimes. The beads are still handmade, people.

I'm not a production line. I'm not a Phillippino twelve year old in a factory without proper ventilation or eye protection churning out beads for ten hours a day, six/seven days a week. I have very limited time on the torch each week.....working full-time for the phone company and being a wife and mother of a five and seven year old does not leave much free time. So when I do get on the torch, I want the time to count.

Normally, I work for an hour making beads and filling up the kiln. Then I let it sit for 30-60 minutes before I fire up the torch again. At that point, I can move the mandrels around in my kiln so the beads may possibly come in contact with each other. They will certainly come in contact with the floor of the kiln (previously, they've been floating, held up in the air by the mandrels resting on a fiber blanket). But I can breathe easy that the beads will be safe from being marred by each other or any pressure from the floor. Which gives me a much higher success rate for every mandrel put into the kiln will come out without any problems.

Happy 5th Birthday Chloe!

Today our baby girl turns five years old.


She is many things.

A siller and a goat. A tree-hugger and a fish.

She's a sister and a friend. A daughter and a sweetheart.

She's a tester and a bulldozer. A goofus roofus and a compassionate little being when she sees someone get hurt.

She is bizarre.

Chloe loves animals. So much so that she can't help herself from delivering three quick (and sometimes hard) pats to their backsides.

She is smart. She can write her name and the names of many friends and family members.

She is our Bean.

I can't believe my baby is five already

Happy 9th Anniversary

Nine years ago today, Todd and I exchanged vows. Having attended a handful of weddings since then, every ceremony has only reinforced how sacred those promises were that we made to each other on that partly sunny day in front of our family and friends.

To have and to hold. In sickness and in health. In good times and bad.

We have been very fortunate. The good times far outweigh the bad, which could probably be counted on one hand. We have a growing family with two beautiful and smart children. We have secure jobs and a stable home. We have been in the right place at the right time to help others get through a day or a year at a time. We are fairly like-minded, which has made us stronger together and more united in the decisions we make from small to big.

Till death do us part.

I love you honeys. Happy Anniversary!

Torrential Rains

We have had some absolutely wretched rains over the past five days. We drove to North Carolina on Thursday evening and five hours of the eight hour drive was in a heavy rain. The weather there could not have been better, but rain welcomed us home when we reached the Atlanta city limits. Today, the rain has been a torrential downpour ruining landscaping, transporting my mulch to the neighbor's yard three doors down and covering some of our roads in eight inches of quickly moving water. Not very much fun to drive through, but that's why I trust my minivan :)

Take a look/listen at this rain. Even with our windows closed, it sounds like a rainforest. But once I open that back door from the kitchen and step out on the backporch, the sound of the rain and the waterfall is deafening. I didn't hold the camera farther away from me and I even raised my voice when speaking on the back porch. Craziness!

Are You Ready For the Weekend?!

We made a very long drive from Atlanta to Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina last night. Tomorrow I will walk down the aisle of a church before my best friend from the 8th grade walks down to exchange vows with the love of her life. My Chloe will be the flower girl.


It wasn't long before Mary and I were the best of friends after she moved two houses down the street from me right before 8th grade started. We were inseparable for years, sharing countless laughs and tears. We had fun reading books, listening/singing to music and watching movies together into the wee hours of many weekends. Mary will tell you I fell asleep before many of the movies ended.

Her family became my family. We went on family vacations together to Myrtle Beach in the summers. Stories of walking into sliding glass doors still bring tears to our eyes from laughing so hard 15+ years after the fact, even without replaying the video that caught at least the sound of it happening.

Mary helped me see who my real friends were, although that wasn't her intention at the time when we were in the middle of a fight that somehow touched dozens of our classmates in the 8th grade. She is my memory for so many things that happened between us, our families, with our friends or our teachers in school through the end of high school.

She keeps me honest and doesn't allow for pity parties, yet she is compassionate and forthright. She is a healer and helps many with her gifted hands. She is passionate. She loves her family and her dogs. And she loves Brandon with all her heart.

Mary, I wish you the best! I am honored to share in this special day with you.

Owen's 7th Birthday

Owen will turn 7 years old today. Shortly after 8:30pm, if you want to get technical. Time has flown since that day when both my parents, my grandparents and some of our best friends waited out the hours in the labor & delivery room at Northside Hospital with us. Since I have no siblings and Todd has only one, our friends present at the hospital were given honorary Aunt and Uncle titles.

In these short and fast seven years, we have watched Owen grow from a little jaundice baby into a big boy who makes us proud. He is smart and excels at math, as well as picks up new spelling words quickly. He can read just about anything we put in front of him now, which is exciting.

He is strong-willed and can't be swayed from his course of action once he makes up his mind. Owen gave up diapers completely (yes, even at night) before he turned two years old. He stopped sucking his thumb cold turkey when he was four years old when he realized he didn't want braces. In spite of tears and many falls, he got back up on his bike repeatedly until he could ride it without training wheels in less than an hour and through many tears of frustration.

Owen is kind. He is quick to put himself in other people's shoes and is very sensitive to other's pain or sadness. He is gentle with animals and will admonish his sister if she is too rough with our pets.

He loves to dance and will break out the moves to music on the radio or his own singing. Owen loves We Will Rock You and We Are The Champions by Queen. For the past two months, he has only listened to Queen's greatest hits in his bedroom as he is falling asleep.

Owen is whimsical and loves to dress up in costumes or have his face painted to take on different identities.

He loves sports and tends to gain attention from softball coaches at batting cages and tennis coaches in camp because he is quick and has excellent hand/eye coordination.

Owen is independent. In Kindergarten, he would get up after his alarm went off and get dressed before brushing his teeth. Many mornings we would find him in the kitchen making breakfast for himself with either cereal in a bowl or waffles in the toaster.

Owen is a brother, a friend, my son, a goofy boy and as he sometimes reminds "just a person who wants have fun."

Today we are driving to North Carolina to see my friend Mary get married on Saturday. Today we get to spend 7 hours in the car with our newly turned 7 year old. Today, we are thankful he is ours and we're celebrating another birthday.

Focal beads

I love the bright orange paired with the sparkly, blue aventurine. Pretty close to the colors of a Florida school :)


Here is another dot-on-dot bead using a khaki, olive and aloe greens on top of a stunning lapis blue. I need to finish cropping pics so I can get this one listed.

I'm really digging this bead and this is the first time the sun cooperated with me so the pics show off all the great colors. I love the organic feel of this etched bead with fiery colors. Another I need to get listed.

I just made this worry stone bead last week and hung it from a leather strap. Happy 91st birthday, Grandma. She loved it!

My Grandma's 91st Birthday

My Grandma was born on Friday, September 13, 1918. She has always looked at Friday the 13th as a lucky day, since she was born on one. Her birthday fell on a Sunday this year. I think making it ninety-one years is pretty lucky. Or more-so a blessing.


My six year old made her a birthday card all by himself and enclosed four quarters as the highest esteemed present he could give her. Grandma's reaction made him feel like the best gift-giver ever.

I hope that I make it to ninety one.
And I hope that I will be as healthy and happy.

Happy Birthday Grandma. I love you so much!

Beads Listed in Etsy

Some of these sets were shown in my blog last week when they were in the midst of their photography shoots. Now they are all listed in my shop. I don't normally get so many listed in one week, but I was very productive in getting pics taken of all of them AND finding the time to get them listed in Etsy (a very time consuming process). So happy!


And this set of Scattered River Rock beads sold immediately after being listed!

Caribbean Blues

These remind me of the color of the water in Cancun. Soooo soooo blue. Some of them have streaks of deeper blue running through them, but it is only upon close inspection when you can see the streaks.



These remind me more of Hawaiian waters with the deep green mixed in like seaweed, but they are still very tropical.
And these gorgeous aqua, with a little sand swirled in like smoke coming out from the holes.
Have a great weekend everyone! It came fast for me, since it was a short work week with Monday being a holiday. Woot!

Of Mice and Men

Last night I was in the midst of an Etsy listing frenzy when Todd came barreling down the stairs and breathless into my office.

"Honey! You've got to come upstairs! Now! There's a mouse! In our bathroom! Quick! Go get it!"

Hello Little Mouse.

I see you in there. That corner doesn't hide you.

Ahhh, there you are. My, what little ears you have! You're lucky Tiger wasn't here, because you would have been toast. Feel fortunate it was my big bumbling Henry who caught you and just wanted to play.

Here's a little carrot as a parting gift. Take it with you, if you want. Or eat it before you leave. Now shoo. Go find another backyard to explore. Without three or four cats.

My husband was thankful I caught the mouse so he didn't have to check into a hotel last night. :)

We are a good fit for each other. In many ways, we are very much alike. We like the same artwork, architecture, interior design and most music. We share the same religious, parenting and political beliefs. But when it comes to intruders on the homefront, we go our separate ways. I catch all the snakes, lizards and rodents. Todd handles all the large insects and spiders. I love my husband for that.

Purplicious

These remind me a little of some other purple beads I made a few months ago. I love this deep purple that swirls out from the core and the silvery white that feathers around and devitrifies in spots giving a chalky finish.


And these deep, Deep, DEEP purple beads. There is some white swirling around in these bad boys, but not much. Not enough to take away from this juicy, grapy purple.

Teriyaki Chicken Salad

This is one of my all time favorite salads and it is easy to make!

Dice up one package of pre-cooked chicken (I like the Perdue, Honey Roasted flavor normally kept close to the deli meats or the Fajita Chicken in bags)

Toss with two bags of romaine

Chop and add half of a sweet vidalia/yellow onion

Throw in a 4 oz package of sliced almonds and about 1/3 to 1/2 a normal sized spice jar of poppy seeds

Dressing --> Mix up good and then toss with the salad
4 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons pepper
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Olive green is my new friend

I love how this green reacted with the raku frit, churning out bright oranges and causing the green to separate a bit with darker outlines. The green looks delicious enough that I might actually try eating real green olives without holding my nose ;)

Good enough to eat?

I think they look absolutely delicious and was so pleased with how these came out of the kiln. The front/middle bead has some cool purplish blues wisping through it's midsection that was a surprise I loved!

I used only a rod of clear glass, dipped in a cream frit and an iris gold frit that I melted in before winding the bead on the mandrel. Great technique I learned from Val Cox. She makes the coolest beads and absolutely wonderful frit blends.

Sneak Peek

I made over 100 beads last week and wanted to share a glimpse of the sets that I finished. I still have hundreds of pics to crop, but thought you'd like a little sneak peek :)

Bead Modesty and Mixed Sets

The sun came out for a smidge late yesterday and I snapped off a few pictures of new beads landing in my Etsy shop this week. I'm normally not a fan of grey, although I preferred to argue in those shades when I was younger. But I like this grey and red together. A nice dark outline is pushed around the red and there is some great streaking going on in the grey.


Speaking of streaking, do you think I am stripping my beads of their modesty by posing them for their holes to be seen by everyone, rather than having them lined up on a mandrel like this? Am I subjecting them to unfair scrutiny?


Or do you think it's important to see all of the beads, holes and all? A buyer wants to know in advance what they are paying for, right? It is important for determining bead quality, because you don't want jagged edges around your glass bead holes.

Anyway, those were the random meanderings of my mind on not enough sleep. And these are the mixed sets I pulled together from my bead box to list in Etsy. I've been hearing rumblings for months from friends/customers to sell mixed sets of unmatched beads. How did I do? Good mix?

Any suggestions for other mixed/un-matched sets?

Going Green(er)

We turned a little bit greener this week. Our house, because we will be using 30% less natural gas to heat our water and my DH because he's thinking "Green schmeen, I can think of other things I would have rather spent our money on than this!" We bought two solar panels to use as an energy source for heating our water.

Here is our old water heater after they cut out the piddly little wall that partially hid it in our garage.

Here is the new, triple insulated hot water heater that we have now.

Here are the guys hoisting the second panel over the roof line.

I wish I had been outside five minutes earlier to see how they got it up there without smashing our windows. I know ropes were involved. But still. These guys are pros.

Mounted on the backside of the house, facing South. They are about two and a half to three feet wide and probably close to six feet tall.

My DH worries the panels will fall through the roof and crush us in bed. He likes to worry.

I am excited that our gas bills will be lower, our water hotter, we'll be green and using fewer of our earth's resources and will also get a nice rebate check back from the government for going solar.

I LOVE this kind of feedback!

Today was a long day and normally simple tasks took much longer or were just extremely difficult. But this convo back from one of my Etsy customers totally made my week!

Kelley llegaron mis hermosos beads!!!! me encantan, estan bellos. Muchas gracias. Esas bellezas solo pueden ser hechas por alguien que le pone mucho empeño y cariño. Okay now in english!! I got my beautiful beads!! I loved them, they're beautiful!!! thank you so much!!! A beautiful thing like that can only be made by someone that puts a lot of effort and love into making them!!!


I was a little confused at first because I don't speak or understand Spanish (in spite of two of my cousins being from Puerto Rico and being fluent in Spanish). The language is on my mental To Do list of things I want to learn within the next year. But she translated it and it was the best! Now I re-read the Spanish and wonder if I'm pronouncing the words correctly. What would her voice sound like in person if she was speaking them to me? I imagine they would sound more beautiful than they look in writing.

Thank you, Mari. You totally rock and I'm so glad you love your beads!

Warm Springs, GA - FDR's Little White House

Saturday morning I woke up with an itch to get out of the house and drive. I woke up earlier than anyone else and it was hard sitting on my hands and keeping the nervous, stir-crazy energy to myself when I really wanted to just jump up and down and yell "EVERYONE UP, WE ARE GOING ON A ROADTRIP TODAY!"

But when they all did wake up, there was immediate agreement from the husband to hit the pavement and take the kids with us. I haven't been to Warm Springs since I was in high school. My folks used to take me almost every year when I was in elementary school and junior high. Todd had never been before, so it was fun taking him to see it for the first time.


We left the house around 10:30am and rolled up to the Little White House almost two hours later with no stops in between. The first hour was on the interstate and the second was on a two-lane state highway through little towns. Next time I will have my camera and out and ready while driving so I can get some pics. Passed a great town square in Greenville and other homes in between that were growing the most beautiful flowers up from the middle of old, worn tires.


This sign doesn't cover FDR's major accomplishments during his presidency, but I always think about how he instituted the social security system and the requirements for our interstates that there must be straight, one-mile stretches of highway every 5-10 miles that could be used as emergency landing strips by aircraft.


This little fountain replaced the old wishing well that is now covered for reasons of liability. Each of my kids received a penny to throw in after making a wish. I'm pretty sure Owen wished for a wii and Chloe confided that she wished for applesauce. God love my bizarre four year old. I don't know why her mind works the way it does, but she amuses me and I love her to pieces.


Wow, a rare sighting of me in front of the camera. Not that I try to avoid pictures, I'm just normally the one holding the camera steady. :)


This plaque was on the footpath directly in front of FDR's house.


In our decade, this appears to be a rather modest home. Perhaps in his time here, it was a modest home, too. FDR had his own bedroom with one small twin bed and a fire place. Eleanor had two twin beds in her bedroom for when their daughter would come visit. A small bathroom with a claw foot tub and tiny sink separated the two bedrooms. The kitchen was small and the icebox/refrigerator was on the side porch, outdoors. A generous library flanked the living room fireplace in floor-t0-ceiling shelves and shared the same space as the dining room large enough for six people to sit at the table.

It was very quiet, with few other visitors on Saturday morning. I imagine it was even quieter when FDR came to Warm Springs to stay when his polio was giving him troubles and he needed the relief of the pools filled by the springs.