I've been tagged

Lorelei tagged me, and I had fun searching out pics & thinking of my answers!

THE RULES:

Rules of the game: Respond and rework. Answer the questions on your own blog; replace one question that you dislike with a question of your own invention; add one more question of your own. Tag some friends to keep the flow going, let them know they've been tagged.


THE QUESTIONS:

What is your current obsession? Paying off bills (including a car note!) to get closer to the point where I can say goodbye to corporate America and just melt glass all morning until my kids come home from school. I want it so bad I can taste it! Really, how could I not want to spend as much time as possible with these two cuties?!



What was the last thing you bought? These have really been a lifesaver in giving our oldest cat his twice daily hyper-thyroid meds. No more putting him in a head lock to shove the pill down his throat. Woot!



What are you listening to right now? I am really ashamed to admit this because I have never been a Miley Cyrus fan, but I love her song the Climb. I'm not at the point where I'm ready to post a picture of her on my blog, though.


Favorite vacation spots? We went here last November w/o kids & can't wait to go again!
Ocean Isle Beach, NC is a favorite for taking the kids along. We normally stay with friends I have known since the late 80s and have always felt like my second family.


Arizona has been one of my favorite vacation spots since my folks would fly me out there by myself ever summer as a child (LOVED those Delta flight privileges!) to visit my Uncle Mike & Aunt Gail.
And Minnesota is an annual vacation we always look forward to because we get to see Todd's folks and watch the kids have fun getting spoiled.


What are you reading right now? A Vince Flynn book that my Dad bought for me last summer, but it is slow going. The little spare time I do find is normally spent behind my torch. Come June, I'll have time to read when we're driving up to Minnesota & back.


What is your current guilty pleasure? After spending numerous 50-60+ hour work weeks taking training courses in preparation for being a field tech as a contingency assignment if our union had gone on strike, I bought an iPhone at the beginning of April. I think Todd is still grinding his teeth. He has wanted one for months, but must wait until August when his contract expires & can upgrade. I wasn't very interested in the iPhone until after he had talked & talked & talked about it. Now I think it is one of the niftiest things ever!



Where are you planning to travel next? Minnesota at the end of June. We'll spend a few days in Rochester with Todd's Mom and then head Up North (to Nevis) to spend time with Todd's Dad and his wife (the kids can't wait to be spoiled by Grandma Sharon!). This is my favorite part of the vacation...we can spend as much time as we want fishing on the boat, looking at the lilly pads or just chilling out doing nothing!



What was the best thing you ate or drank recently? I am so addicted to avocados and had them chopped up in my shrimp salad last night



What flower are you most anxious to see bloom this spring? My oleander bushes, but I'm worried they won't be coming back this year. We had multiple freezes that I think may have killed them. :(



Where do you get the most inspiration for your work? New color/glass combinations tend to lead me in many new directions & inspire new designs. I also get weekly requests from my kids to try new textures, shapes & combinations. As you can see from my glass cabinet, I don't have many choices ;)



Care to share some wisdom? Be happy with what you have because as my husband says, "the grass isn't greener on the other side. It's just different poop."

I've tagged:
Metallo Bianco
2ifbySea
glass & fire

New Eye Candy

Pics of the beads I made last night. I had fun playing with some of my Double Helix and TAG (Trautman Art Glass) colors! Striking (heating, cooling and then repeating a gazillion more times!) and reducing (eliminating the oxygen for a fuel rich flame) techniques were used to bring out colors much different from the color of the rods.


This is Terranova 2 (a DH color) which looks dirtier than our Chattahoochee River in rod form. Just a murky, muddy almost transparent brown. But melt it over clear to let the light shine through and then work it in the flame for awhile and voila! These awesome reds, blues & purples jumped out!!!



Next is Zeus (a TAG color) that is clear in rod form. I swirled it over Red Roof Tile and worked it for awhile to get these really deep blues & purples.



And these are my favorite....I want to make more, but in different shapes...nuggets, cubes, maybe some lentils. This is Aion 2 (another DH color) that is also clear in rod form. The rumor is you can get pearly whites out of this, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE the blues and greens. The metallic/mirror-y finish that outlines this glass where it touches the black is another cool bonus.

This Was My Weekend!

I worked in the yard. Got the grass cut. Trimmed the top of the willow tree with Todd holding the ladder after giving it a major hair cut last week as high up as I could reach or climb. These pink flowers are some the kids picked out & I planted last weekend.


This is our bush outside the kitchen patio that has grown big enough to take over Texas. I'll trim it back after it loses all the blooms. They're so pretty, I couldn't stand the thought of cutting them all off right now.
My girl child contemplating the pros/cons of running through the sprinkler with big bumble bees in the backyard. In the end, the fear of the bees kept her rooted on my lap or by my side. I told her they didn't sting and they didn't have teeth to bite, they just lick (they're just big ole pollinators) which made her laugh. Maybe next weekend.

A glimpse of my new haircut through the sun speckles. I got close to 6 inches chopped off in the front. Chloe is still pensive about the bees.


Still looking out for the bees, but at least I caught her beautiful smile :)


And the temps got above 90. I LOVED it!

And a little time on the torch. Not as much as I'd like, but my time will come in another month and Todd will owe me big. Right now, he is playing tennis like a fiend. Seems like every team he's on is either in the playoffs or going to the State Championships. So he's playing tennis ALL THE TIME, which is great for him. And I'm enjoying more of the one-on-one time with the kids. They have helped me pick out a TON of flowers these last two weekends and helped get some of the plants in the ground.

Hoping to get some new beads listed in Etsy this week. We'll see. Depends on how hectic work is & what kind of free time I find in the evenings or if I take lunch hours.

Easter Weekend

Here are my two little loves, on the hunt for Easter eggs in the backyard. O was most helpful in pointing his sister toward eggs once he hit his gathering limit. I love that they are friends and work together. Sometimes.


And here begins my playtime at the torch from Saturday. I spent multiple 30 minute chunks in my studio melting glass between hanging out with the Grandparents and snuggling the kids before Todd and I went out on a date (woo hoo! a kids free evening). I logged maybe 3 hours total on the torch, but had a most enjoyable time playing with new color combinations and a new color....

Lake Geneva which is polka dotted on the ivory beads below. The transparent rod is a deep royal blue, but on white it becomes a light blue. On ivory, it is a deeper blue. It turns into a greenish hue when I reduce the flame to eliminate oxygen. The ivory always reacts excellently with glass that has silver in it. Here you can see the dark rings around the Geneva, which a thin white outline separating the dark rings from the interior color.


These beads have a white core underneath a layer of pinks that I "painted" on by dipping a hot rod of clear into the frit jar before melting it around the white. Then I heavily encased the beads in clear to magnify the pinks. They look like candy to me.
I like these purple beads. I used a purple frit with Gaffer clear, which produced a nice range of purples (the frit had a nice color combination, the Gaffer makes them stand out by being the marvelous clear that it is). But I also worked it a little too hot, so the purple devitrified in spots (you might be able to see the chalky white if you look closely) and a little boiling/pitting which mars the smooth surface.

And here is a pendant necklace I just made for a Twitter friend's weight loss challenge...Aweigh. Heather of Sentimental Journey has pulled in some really cool donations to give as award prizes each week to the participant who has lost the most weight. I had already been experimenting with larger beads to be used as either worry stones or birthing necklace beads (to focus on during labor), so it only took me a few tries before I decided on the combination that I thought would be great for this leather focal necklace. This bead comfortably fits in the palm of my hand and is smooth on the back side. I encased it in clear, but didn't melt it in completely on the front so the fingers would know without even looking which side is facing out. I used a sterling silver hook & eye clasp and a little SS tear drop to dangle beneath my bead. I'm sad to see this one leave so quickly....a winner has already been chosen for the week. I'll just have to make more of these big beads!

No climbing poles for me!

Here is my only shot at climbing phone poles...training in Dallas two weeks ago. While the union did not come to an agreement with my company on a new contract, they did agree to continue business as usual until they do come to an agreement. For me, this means I do NOT have to go to Oklahoma to work as a field technician (ie. climbing poles, descending into manholes or installing/repairing phone lines for the locals).

I have spent 300+ hours over the past several months taking 57 training courses. It has been stressful working 50+ hour work weeks for months on top of my normal job, as well as thinking of the possibility of leaving my family for an unknown amount of time to perform strike duty. My time on the torch considerably decreased as a result to spend my evenings in online training. My beloved torch and source of sanity renewal, oh how I have missed you! I am extremely thankful that the union agreed to not strike and that I may stay home. With my family. With free evenings to now return to my torch or my husband's side on the sofa when he's not playing tennis. I can get caught up on 24 and American Idol. I can again make commitments on Etsy and know I can fulfill them. On time.

It is the simple things that I am returning to and that I am now running toward with open arms. I have been doing heel clicks all day in thanks & happiness :)

And an added bonus? My Dad can finally stop singing Wichita Lineman to me everytime we talk!

Eagan, MN artist - Sherry Ehret of JitterJewels

Sherry is a fantastic jewelry designer and is living the dream! She has been working full-time, designing jewelry for years. What would be her formal living room in her home is actually her studio and showroom. When I visited Sherry last summer, I was in awe of her designs, workmanship and the sheer quantity of pieces displayed. It was like I had walked into an upscale boutique off Main Street because there was soooo much to look at and touch and look at some more :)


Sherry has a great eye for design and color combinations. Her work ranges from simply subtle to complex and elegant to bold and flashy. I'm sure you can find a piece for any occasion, whether you're dressing down for the beach or up for a formal ball. I LOVE how she can take so many different components and put them all together to make stunning jewelry that anyone can wear!


And you might have noticed some of my beads in her jewelry, which I think is so cool. I enjoy watching my beads 'grow up' and live new & different lives in ways I would never dream up. Like the etched green & yellow beads in the bracelet above. I loved these beads, but I could never figure out what to do with them. Sherry created this bracelet and now I can't imagine a more perfect design with these colors!


She even makes name and birthstone bracelets similar to the one above. Sherry made one that says GRANDMA for Sharon (my mom-in-law) that she wears ALL. THE. TIME. And I got Sherry to make a bracelet for one of my good friend's with her son's name and birthstones (which she LOVED!). Just send her an email if you want something specific, Sherry takes on custom work all the time :)

You can visit Sherry's Jitter Jewels shop on Etsy at JitterJewels.etsy.com

My Honeys

Yesterday afternoon as my husband and I were instant messaging back/forth on Yahoo, he typed the most romantic thing. He told me we were meant to be together.

Now granted, it was after we had been discussing what to have for dinner and we simultaneously suggested grilled cheese samiches and soup. But still. He said it. He meant it. And I'll take it. I love this man more than anything!

On another note, I have been completely swamped with getting my training completed in case our union goes on strike and I get shipped off to Durant, Oklahoma. Swamped equates to 12 hour days in front of the computer learning about test sets, ground faults, dial tone generation, pole climbing, aerial lift trucks and 37 other courses. Yes, I really have completed 42 courses. I have 8 more to go and they will likely take another 50 hours of my time. Sadly, this means no torch time for me. And really, not any blogging time either.

But I was going mad with training and I needed (yes, NEEDED) to take this five minute break and share with everyone about my wonderful husband.

South Bend, IN artist - Beatrice Studio

I bought this clutch from Beatrice Studio at the end of last week and it arrived on Monday while I was in Dallas for training with work. While Anna's photographs are awesome (note-to-self, find out what she uses for lighting), the purse is even better in person! I was so excited to get home after being gone three days to find this waiting for me. Her packaging was great (it arrived like a birthday present wrapped in a green bow & tissue paper), but the colors of the fabric and her workmanship are most excellent!!! The big square button is too cool :)



Again, love her photography. Digging the button used with these green zebra stripes.

And her stash of uber-cool fabrics. LOVE the bright, cheery colors! I know where I'll be getting some of my Christmas shopping completed this year for fam/best friends!

You can buy Anna's great items in her Etsy shop at www.beatricestudio.etsy.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/beatricestudio. Beatrice Studio also keeps her blog current at http://beatricestudio.wordpress.com.

Or her number one location with the easiest url to remember at www.beatricestudio.com.

New bead pics

Too tired to write much, but wanted to share pics before I go to bed so I can say I accomplished something tonight ;)

Here is a new CiM color I just bought recently called Plum. Love this purple as it is nothing like any other shade I have worked with...not really lavender or violet or purple....more plum. It is a bit of a milky transparent. Not exactly opaque, but definitely not a transparent, either.


Now start the pics of beads with Taxco Silver Turquoise. In rod form, it is a transparent teal/blue. Put it on an opaque which reacts well to metals (like ivory & a handful of other colors) and it turns into a bit of an opaque itself.


LOVE the silver outline followed by a black outline touching the yellow glass in these beads. It does the same on the ivory, but seems more pronounced to me on the yellow....


And here we have the Taxco Silver Turquoise on opaque turquoise beads (it remains a transparent), on Uranium Yellow (where it turns a transparent green) and in a twisty with ivory around a clear bead (where it looks almost completely black). All of these beads were etched. I think the twisty on clear is my favorite because the clear glass appears more grey/silver once etched.

New listings

I got my new photo tent/cube & put it to good use today. Not so thrilled with the lights that came with it that were supposed to be oh-so-super.

But the tent worked great when I took it out to my deck for mid-day photography session over my lunch hour today.


I got all of these listed in my Etsy shop tonight before 24 started! :)

Let me know what you think of the photography and/or the beads.

Toggle Clasps & Big Hole Mandrels

These are the beads/clasps I made in Amy's Toggle Clasp class last Monday in Brea, California. We used 5/8ths mandrels to make the ring part of the clasp. I didn't melt the dots in all the way on the purple or green for a more funky finish.
For the toggle/bar part of the clasp, we either cut rods into small sections & melted them to small spacer beads or we heated them to bend into V's and attached those to small spacers. My favorite is the shape of the V that I made with the red glass.


Here is a pic of the big hole beads on the mandrel, although I used three separate mandrels to make them....one for each bead. These beads take up much more surface area on the mandrel and are often very difficult to remove after being annealed.

My secret for easily removing beads from mandrels is to cut up these Scotch-Brite pads into 2x4" rectangles to hold onto the beads and twist them back & forth while I hold the other end of a mandrel still with a pair of pliers. The beads twist off like a piece of cake (normally!).

California

It was a stressful trip, or rather a much dreaded event for the two weeks leading up to it. In my stomach, I knew I would not be returning home to my family. My flight was canceled last Sunday (as were all flights leaving Atlanta) when the Blizzard of 2009 hit us with 4-6 inches of snow before the afternoon had barely arrived. I arrived at John Wayne airport in Orange County on Monday morning after catching the first non-stop out of ATL.

Training ended early and I found that Amy was instructing a class in a nearby town only 20 miles away. We had previously agreed to meet for coffee one afternoon, but finding out about her class and that it had an opening was an unexpected thrill. I have admired her work ever since I started up my Etsy shop a year ago and have enjoyed exchanging tweets with her on Twitter. In her class, I learned how to make a toggle clasp out of glass. My efforts aren't that pretty, but then I was focusing more on technique than color combinations & decorations. I'll post pics tomorrow. Before I left, Amy gave me one of her signature droplet beads :)


When driving back to my hotel after the class, American Pie came on the radio singing to me that this would be the day that I die. A quick push of the seek button to the next radio station landed me in the middle of a rage on Revelations from a Christian radio station. Off went the radio and the hands gripped the 2 and 10 positions on my steering wheel for the next 30 minutes.


During the course of my training class, I learned how to use various test sets for finding troubles on phone/data lines in the field. I climbed down into a manhole and I raised myself 40 feet in the air on a bucket truck extension arm. The view of the San Bernardino mountains was awesome, although I didn't have my camera with me.


The highlights of the trip were taking Amy's class (was totally unprepared for any torch time!), hanging out with her for a coupla hours in Starbucks the next day, driving to San Clemente down the Coastal Hwy (all the above pics were taken on my drive to SC or on their pier), dinner with Level 3 friends of Todd's in San Clemente, training ending a day early and getting a 3 hour layover in Salt Lake City where my best friend from the 2nd grade picked me up & hung out with me over dessert. This was the first time I have seen Becky in 25 years. How fun to catch up face-to-face after so many years and now be moms.

So. Very. Thankful. To. Be. Home. Safe.

With my husband and kids. They are the absolute best things I have going on in my life!

Travel

No, I don't have any new bead pics to share. I'm sorry. I did make 40+ beads on Friday night. And I did make another 40+ beads yesterday. I even got all the beads from Friday night cleaned out and ready to photograph. The beads from yesterday are still on mandrels standing up on display on my kitchen window sill. I'll get the pics taken next weekend. When I get back home from California.

If only I had known that leaving the house at 10am today was a fruitless decision. Then I would have stayed home. Snuggled with the kids. Snuggled with my wonderful husband who offered to keep me company while I sat at the torch & melted glass the other night. And taken bead pics on the back porch while the sky was white with snow.


Instead, I stood in line at Hartsfield for four hours. FOUR HOURS, people! For just a few inches of snow that has all melted, but single-handedly destroyed the entire flight schedule at the Atlanta airport and canceled all flights for today. They changed me to a non-stop flight that leaves at 8:25am tomorrow. Which means I need to get up & leave before the crack of dawn. In fact, I'll need to be at the AIRPORT before the crack of dawn. So I can wait again because there will likely be ice somewhere in Georgia causing problems. Not necessarily at Hartsfield, but somewhere. They have already started closing schools in/around Atlanta. So when you think of me tomorrow, I'll just be waiting...