B-LEE KREATIONS - BONNIE'S KREATIVE KORNER

CANE SWAP AND MORE BUSTER ANTICS

2012-01-27T07:03:00.000-08:00

Our clay guild is having a cane swap and I'm still experimenting with different types of canes to see what I can come up with. I need 12 canes, 3 inches long. Yesterday I made a couple Kaleidoscope canes. I left one in tact after I cut it in half and put the two pieces together.

This is a picture of the end piece. I wrapped the other two pieces up to keep them clean.

This is one piece of the second cane.

This is also a piece of the second cane.

These are the four pieces from the second cane that have been reduced. At least now I have the concept of what I think I want to do but I want different colors. These were done with left over canes and pieces of clay. I'll try this again but with brighter colors. It's a great way to take a cane you don't really like and make 4 different canes out of it.

HE'S AT IT AGAIN

Buster has had me laughing non-stop. He's been wonderful. I still think about Booboo but this little kitten is the love of my life right now (except for the big guy I live with).

This is where I found him this morning. Took some work to get him down. I still can't figure out how he got up there.

Wednesday he decided to get up on the fourth shelf and sleep on my purse. When he got up, the purse started tipping forward and I was sure he was going to go flying and get hurt. He did a flip and ended on the third shelf with the shoes.

He was holding on to those shoes for dear life after that. At least he doesn't think my feet stink. :0)

Everyday is a joy and a new amusement with this little guy. I think he has a cold. He's been sneezing and coughing. What do you give kittens when they get a cold?

JUST COULDN'T LEAVE IT ALONE

2012-01-25T06:08:00.000-08:00

Our clay guild is having a cane swap at our February meeting so I've been playing around with canes. I love making flower canes with weird Skinner blend combinations but I don't know if that's what I'm going to do. Thank goodness not all the canes have to be the same. I'm really excited about getting canes from 12 other people after seeing this necklace on CraftEdu.

OK, I made a cane,

JUST COULDN'T LEAVE IT ALONE

I think I liked it better before but this will make great beads for my golf stroke counters.

I need to get to work now and make some canes.

HINT HINT: Read Colt Pixy's blog today http://coltpixy.com/ she talks about using Super Sculpey to clean your pasta machine.

UPDATE ON BUSTER

He's still fascinated by the computer. Yesterday morning I poured a cup of coffee and sat down on my desk. He jumped up on my keyboard and when I tried to move him, I hit the coffee cup and dumped it on my shirt and in my lap. Burned my stomach and leg but not bad. John came in and pulled the shirt away from me. I'm just thankful little Buster didn't get burned.

POLYMER CLAY CANES AND MISTER BUSTER

2012-01-22T17:36:00.000-08:00

Last week at our beading club a bunch of us got together and did clay. I was teaching beginner classes there but since my back has been so bad I haven't been able to commit to anything. My friend Rose has been getting the ladies together and doing clay and they are having a ball. Rose is a wonderful teacher and she's a lot wilder than I am with her colors so the ladies are really enjoying it. I was amazed at some pieces that were made by some "first time clayers". I wish I could get out of my boring box and find my wild side again. Anyway, I put the instructions for a cane on my Pinterest board HERE. It's called Rita's demo but we knew it as a Lynne Cane. This is one of my favorite canes and I had some blue and white clay out so I made one. I put the 4 pieces of square cane together and will work on getting it smoother at the seams and then maybe cut a piece for a pendant and put a Swarovski crystal in the middle. It's a fun cane, you can't ruin it.

MISTER BUSTER

My friends on face book are laughing about all the stories and pictures I've posted about "Mister Buster" my new kitten. He's grown about 2 inches since I got him on December 27th.

I'm exhausted, my house is a wreck, I'm constantly on guard for falling flowers, pictures and nick knacks. I have no idea where the pens are that were on my desk, my Chap Stick is missing and so are two of my crochet hooks. We had to put the butter up in a cupboard. I do not allow any animals on tables or counter tops, never have, never will and this little likes to test my patience. I think he has a higher IQ than I do, he's faster than I am and he can hide in places I can't get my hands in.

I yelled at him the other night and he hid under my desk. See the beads all over the floor, we had words about that.

He was hiding behind my DVD's in the printer cabinet. If I hadn't seen the little blue can moving, I wouldn't have known he was there.

He has a fascination for beads. I need to watch him constantly when he is in my studio.

Last night we were going to bed and I called him. No Answer. We looked for 25 minutes and finally found him in the closet in the wrapping paper. Don't know how he got in there, we don't leave those doors open.

This is Buster getting a bath. It took two of us. He was really good for a while and then he turned around and pushed the faucet off. I believe that will probably be the last cat bath. Took us two days to recover.

FAUX BONE TUTORIAL

I bought the Faux Bone Tutorial from my friend Lynda Moseley from her Etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/SCDiva. It's incredible. She has done so much work and the information and pictures in the tutorial are very professional and comprehensive. Whether you are a seasoned polymer clay person or a new one, this tutorial gives you everything. I have almost all Lynda's tutorials and it boggles my mind how much information she shares and how much work she has put into them. This one is no exception. Lynda doesn't know I'm doing this but I wanted to give her a plug because she is one of most sharing and helpful and pay it forward people I've ever dealt with. Please visit her shop and see her beautiful work. I want to be like Lynda when I grow up :0).

EARRINGS AND A SILLY CAT

2012-01-18T06:52:00.000-08:00

My 96 year old friend who sells earrings is at again. She sold 40 pair over Christmas and is asking for more. I made a few different ones for her. I prefer doing clay but I also do wire and beads for her.

Angel Earrings

Her girls at the nursing home like long earrings.

SILLY CAT

This cat is hysterical. Today he got in the garbage can in my office and wouldn't get out.

Buster is the sunshine in my life right now except I had to put all my breakables away.

Now he sleeps with his head on my pillow and makes sure he is as close to me as possible.

Hope to be getting back to clay soon.

MISTER BUSTER AND GRRRRRRRRR DOCTOR

2012-01-13T13:58:00.000-08:00

Mister Buster has been with us for 17 days. We changed his name from Teddy to Buster. He just isn't a Teddy. I forgot what kittens do. They get the crazies 2 or 3 times a day. I've had to put all my knick knacks away. He flies from one place to another and he's so fast I can't catch him.

He has a brand new comfy bed that my husband bought him but he won't go in it. When he's not tearing the doilies off the tables or trying to eat the poinsettia plant, he sleeps on my oven glove that I use for polymer clay.

He is a thief among all his other fun things. So far I'm missing a crochet hook, a tube of chap stick the pens off my desk, 3 pair of earrings (I found those).

He gets in the refrigerator every time it opens so we have to be careful. He hit my neighbors dog the other day.

The dog growled but Buster didn't care.

At night he gets in bed with me and he stretches out next to the pillow. And that's where he sleeps all night. He weighed almost 2.5 pounds when I got him. Now he's a little over 3.5.

I'm exhausted but I'm happy. He's a joy..............till the next bout of crazies.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR DOCTOR

I went on facebook Tuesday and whined. Had lots of people sending me great ideas. I had a doctor's appointment at 10:15 with an orthopedic surgeon on Tuesday. Got there at 9:40 to fill out paper work. Finally got called in at 10:25. At 11:00 no doctor so I went to check and the girl said she would check. 11:15 I went out again and another said she would check. 11:30 I went out again and a different girl said someone would be in right away. At 11:40 I put on my jacket and grabbed my purse and a nurse came running in the room. She said she was sorry that I got over looked because my paperwork was stuck to another patients but the doctor had to leave. Does LIVID describe me now??????????

I had shots in my back two months ago that didn't work so I wanted an MRI to find out what was really wrong. I thought maybe my back and my migraines could be related. She told me that what I had wrong was mechanical and that I didn't need an MRI and that I could have shots again in March. So now my face is red, my blood pressure is up and the tears are ready to roll. I've had chronic back pain since last September and it feels like a knife going into the left side of my back and my migraines are getting worse and more often. It's prevented me from sitting and doing polymer clay and beading. This nurse was so irritating. I picked up my stuff and told her about the pain and that we weren't getting any where and she wrote me out a prescription for a narcotic and told me if I needed more I had to get them from my doctor. She said if I didn't believe what she was telling me I could call the doctor and talk to him???????????????????????????????????????

The tears started before I got to the door. I stopped at McDonald's and got the biggest ice cream cone they had. Wednesday I woke up with a migraine and I'm sure it was stress from Nurse Ratchet and Dr. Dufus. They won't be seeing me anymore. I tried to get into my doctor but can't get in till the 23rd of January. I think I should send a bill for my time.

I did learn a lesson though. I will not sit in a little back room in a doctor's office more than 20 minutes without checking to see what the problem is.

Thanks for listening to my story. I think I'll go get some cheese to go with my whine.

STEAMPUNK PENDANTS AND A CURIOUS CAT

2012-01-07T06:30:00.000-08:00

I found a couple wonderful places on Etsy to buy bezels and watch parts. It's really hard to photograph resin because it back flashes because of the shine.

I went back to Picasa to edit my pictures. Now I just have to find a place to take better pictures.

THE CURIOUS CAT

Buster now weighs 3.2 pounds. He loves to eat. Good thing he came to right house because we love to eat too :0).

Having a kitten is really interesting. I forgot how much trouble they can get into and how lovable they can be. First thing in the morning I check all the blogs that I follow. He gets on my desk and watches all the pages change and loves to follow the mouse arrow.

I wonder if he can read? He sleeps right next to my pillow at night. He has since the first night I got him. I'll be in trouble if he ever gets to be a big cat.

CANE SWAP

Our guild is having a cane swap in February so I need to get to work and make some canes. I like making flower canes but I would like to do some Kaleidoscope canes. If you know a good one, send it to me.

It's hard to type when a little cat keeps stepping on the key board.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

2012-01-01T13:26:00.000-08:00

As I sit here typing, Buster has his head on my wrist. He's been such a joy and the best Christmas present I've ever had.

He is not allowed on my work table or by my polymer clay, don't want cat hair in my resin or clay. I've been working on bezels with clay and watch parts. I have an order for quite a few of them so I've been trying different types of bezels. I wish I could get better pictures of them. I use Photofiltre to enhance my pictures but I'm just learning it and it's quite detailed. I'll get there.

This is is a pendant I made for my friend Char who had cats but had to give them up because of her business. She taught me how to trim Busters nails. The cat is a little tiny button that I baked in the clay. Then I covered the entire thing with Magic Glos. Two coats.

This is a pendant made with a pearl, green-blue and black Skinner blend. I bought the bezel from "The Hoarder's Closet" on etsy which is Marie Segal's.

This was made from a piece of my face cane from the Barbara Maguire class. They all have resin (Magic Glos) on them which is really hard to photograph.

I found with the UV resins that they like to draw into themselves BUT if the item you are putting them on is COOL or COLD, the resin doesn't draw in as much. I've been using a UV Light so I have to put my piece on a tile to put it in the lamp. I make sure my tile is cold and the item I'm putting the resin on is cold before I apply the resin. I made a pair of earrings that I wanted resin on also and found that I could paint a coat of resin on, put it under the light and repeat that painting with the resin to build up layers.

AND THE WINNER IS...........................

2011-12-31T15:18:00.000-08:00

Today was the drawing for the cat pendant and the winner is ColtPixy. You can thank John, he picked your name out of the box.

Congratulations. Please email me your address and I will put it in the mail Tuesday since Monday is a postal holiday. I know this little guy is going to a good home.

Happy New Year Colt Pixy and everyone that left a comment on my blog. I'm sure you are all going to have a wonderful 2012.

Happy New Year to all my blog friends and family. My New Year is going to be more interesting because of this:

This is Buster. We were going to call him Teddy but he's not a Teddy. We have been laughing for 5 days. He's such a joy. He loves to eat, play, sleep and poop........

He's given us so much love and millions of laughs. He crawls under the covers at night and sleeps right next to me. His purring helps me fall asleep.

If you can adopt an animal from a shelter near you, I promise you won't regret it. This is the 5th cat that I've gotten from a shelter and they keep getting better.

I guess that cat pendant is pretty appropriate right now.

Happy New Year

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY TO NEW YEAR TO ME

2011-12-28T07:36:00.000-08:00

You all know I lost my 20 year old Booboo in May. It's been kind of lonely since he went to Rainbow Bridge.

My husband didn't want me to get another cat because of the bad migraines. We wanted to see if we could figure out what was causing them.

On Christmas, he came home with a box of kitty liter bags, a kitty liter box, a little bed and a cat carrier and rubber balls. I was so excited.

Yesterday I went to the shelters looking for a gold tiger cat. I've always had gold tiger cats. The Sun Valley Shelter had 15 kittens up for adoption and no gold tiger cats. When I went in the room many of the kittens came over by me and wanted to play. On the floor looking up at me was the smallest kitten in the room and he just looked like he needed to be held. I picked him up and he instantly took my necklace in his mouth and held on for dear life. He started purring right away. The other kittens were kind of indifferent but this guy wouldn't let go.

He's a tuxedo cat with great markings. He only weighs 2.3 pounds and I'm not sure he weighs that much. He hasn't stopped eating since I brought him home.

His new name is Teddy which means "Divine Gift". Here he is with our neighbors little rat terrier Scooter. You can see how little he is.

He has to be on my desk whenever I am. He loves the arrow going around on the screen. He's very inquisitive and likes sitting on the keyboard.

Last night I waited to see where he wanted to sleep. He got in bed with me and snuggled right next to me. He got up once to get a drink of water and came back to bed, got on the pillow and felt around to see if I was there. Then he got in the little hole he made next to me and went to sleep again. When I got up this morning he didn't move. He wanted to stay and sleep but he saw John so he knew it was time to get up.

I really got lucky with this guy. He's really smart and never leaves me out of his sight. I don't think he's going to be a big cat. He's all white on the bottom but has a black mark on his right leg. He won't sit still for pictures so these are the best I could do so far.

Love my new "Furever Friend". There are a lot more babies there that need forever homes. Take a chance. IT' A WONDERFUL LIFE with an animal. Unconditional love.

Lorelei's Blog Give Away

2011-12-27T05:53:00.000-08:00

Check out this blog, great give away.

http://lorelei1141.blogspot.com/

TINA HOLDEN'S CHRISMAS GIVEAWAY

2011-12-23T05:16:00.000-08:00

Check out Tina Holden's blog. She's doing a giveaway of 3 beautiful pieces. Don't get your hopes up too high though, one of these beauty's is going to mine, mine, mine :0).

I'll share.

http://beadcomber.blogspot.com/

Go to her blog and leave a message for an opportunity to win. Leave one by my green cat necklace so you can win that too.

Merry Christmas

30,000 HITS GIVEAWAY

2011-12-22T18:13:00.000-08:00

I mentioned in a post last week that my blog was close to getting it's 30,000 th hit. I also mentioned that I was going to do a giveaway to celebrate this momentous occasion.

This necklace has one of my favorite cats on it. The polymer clay pendant is covered in resin and is attatched to 4 pieces of heavy gold chain. The chains are attached to matching green cords and has a gold lobster claw with a heart on it. The crystals and beads on the bottom add a little and they don't match on purpose.

If you would like to win this, leave me a comment and tell me one of your New Years resolutions.

On Saturday, December 31st, I am going to take all the names and have my sweetheart pick a name. He likes doing that.

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and get those comments in.

Merry Christmas Booboo, this ones for you.

POLYMER CAFE SURPRISE FOR TWO

2011-12-19T18:28:00.000-08:00

Today I got my February issue of Polymer Cafe and on page 54 I was surprised to see two pictures. The first one is a necklace made by my dear friend Judy Kelly (who is a on cruise coming back from Spain). Not sure why my name is on the necklace too and that I live in Prescott, AZ. I didn't know that either but that would be great for the summer when it's 118 degrees here. Under Judy's picture is a mask made by another dear friend of mine, Lupe Meter (the very talented Lupe Meter might I add).

I just wanted to congratulate both of them for their great pieces. Judy never wore jewelry until she started doing clay a couple of years ago and now she makes incredible pieces (waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay out of the box). As you can see by Lupe's mask, she does very beautiful, precise work. I wish I had her patience.

GIVEAWAY

I noticed I have almost 30,000 visitors to my blog. When it hits the 30,000 mark, I'm going to do a giveaway. Haven't decided what it's going to be yet. Maybe I'll give away a migraine or a pain in the back. I have a lot of extra ones of those. Keep checking back to see what it's going to be and how to win it.

Pinterest

I finally put up a Pinterest board. It doesn't have much there yet but I'm working on it. Come follow me if you want, I'm the one with all the pictures of the polymer clay and animals.

CHRISTMAS IN ARIZONA

2011-12-15T19:59:00.000-08:00

A few years ago I organized a party for 60 women and wrote this poem to put on their plates.

CHRISTMAS IN ARIZONA

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the town,

No noses were frozen no snow fluttered down.

No children in flannels were tucked into bed,

They all wore their shorty pajamas instead.

To find pretty cactus was not very hard,

For cactus plants sprouted right in the back yard.

In front of the houses were daddies and moms,

Admiring the bushes and the all the royal palms.

The slumbering kiddies were dreaming in glee,

And hoped they'd find IPads under the tree.

They all knew that Santa was well on his way,

In a Mercedes Benz instead of a sleigh.

And soon he arrived and started to work,

He hadn't a second to linger or shirk.

He whizzed over highways and zoomed up the roads,

In a shiny new sports car delivering his loads.

The desert moon gave the city a glow,

And lighted the way for Santa below.

As he jumped from the auto, he gave a wee chuckle,

He was dressed in his shorts with a "Go Phoenix" buckle.

There weren't any chimneys but that caused no gloom,

Santa came in through the Arizona room.

He stopped at each house but stayed only a minute,

And emptied his sack of the stuff that was in it.

Before he departed he treated himself,

To a big margarita that was left on the shelf.

Then he turned with a jerk and bounced back to his car,

Remembering he still had to go very far.

He shifted the gears and stepped on the gas,

And away up I-10 he went with a flash.

And I heard him exclaim as he went on his way,

Merry Christmas Arizona, I wish I could stay.

This is Booboo last year. His last Christmas. This is the first Christmas in 30 years that I haven't had a cat helping me put up the tree and wrapping presents. Booboo liked chewing on the branches of the tree and batting at the balls on the tree. I always put a couple plastic ones on the bottom just for him.

Merry Christmas, Booboo, Pico, Molly and Yoyo, hope you get lots of catnip.
Guess you can tell I'm having a Christmas Cat Day.

POLYMER CLAY IN PARADISE

2011-12-10T14:18:00.000-08:00

It's 75 degrees here in Arizona and the sun is shining. It's a polymer clay in paradise day. Listening to Christmas music with the windows open and doing clay. And no, I don't miss the snow. Drove to work in that for 31 years. I'm done with shoveling and boots and long underwear.

I've been trying to get some Christmas presents done this week but I had a migraine Wednesday, Thursday and today. The pills I have make me feel drunk and hung over so it's hard to accomplish anything. Lori from Pretty Things is having the same problem. Must be that time of year.

I finally finished 8 golf stroke counters that are going in my Etsy and Artfire stores.

This is one. It has Swarovski crystals on the wood beads to give it a little glam. I have a lady who buys them just to hang on her purse. My purse is heavy enough.

I've said before how much I like doing beaded Kumihimo instead of beaded crochet. Well, I finished this Christmas necklace and put one of my snowmen on it. I was going to give it as a gift but I think it's going in my Artfire store. If it doesn't sell, it will be a gift next year.

Back to the icepack and hot tea.

Oh by the way, the new "From Polymer To Art" magazine has a wonderful tutorial written by Lynda Moseley "SC DIVA". It's a Faux Lavender Necklace and it's beautiful. The instructions are really great. I've had a few times when I've had to ask Lynda for help and she loves to share. You can find Lynda at www.scdiva.etsy.com and www.scdiva.blogspot.com.

I didn't tell Lynda but the only reason I bought the book was because she was in it. :0)

Actually, there is another very talented lady in the book this time. Her name is Cara Jane Hayman and she has an article about the curing experiments she did. You saw what happened to mine, I almost burned the garage down. Cara is from England and does a lot of beautiful polymer clay work. You can find Cara at www.carajane.co.uk.

I have a disease. I think now that I got this in the mail I have every polymer clay book and magazine ever written. Someday I'm going to read them instead of just looking at the pretty pictures.

CAT IN THE HAT AND EARRING IN THE EAR

2011-12-03T20:25:00.000-08:00

I saw this picture of a Cat in the Hat and have been trying to find one. I wonder if someone wore this to the Royal Wedding??????????? I sure would like one but I want a gold tiger cat in mine.

EARRING IN AND BEHIND THE EAR

I'm still making earrings for my 96 year old friend in the nursing home in Wisconsin. She requested a two part earring with snow flakes. I used Penny Jo Couch's mold with the snow flake and put glitter on this one. The snow flake is glued to a post and the earring backing has beads on it. I have to make some for myself, I really like them.

I'll post more when I get them done. I think these would look great with the Cat in the Hat hat.

JUDY'S FACE PENDANT

2011-11-29T08:34:00.000-08:00

This is what Judy Kelly made from her face cane from the Barbara Maguire face cane class. I love the hair.

I think she's cute.

I'm off to another computer class. I'm over whelmed.

VELVEETA CHEESE FUDGE

2011-11-23T14:39:00.000-08:00

I've had a lot of great emails and so has Lynda Moseley about the fudge. Most people are still questioning the use of Velveeta Cheese in making fudge. Trust me, once you make it, you won't make it any other way. I had an ice cream fudge recipe that I thought was the best but it took it's place.

I have to tell you a little story about the fudge.

My neighbor across the street would not allow me to leave my fudge at her house because she was always dieting and her husband was a diabetic. He started wearing a Santa hat all the time and she could never figure out what that was all about. Every day when she was in the shower he would come across the street to beg for fudge. He kept a little plastic bag inside his Santa hat. He would put the fudge in there and wear it home and then hide the little bag of fudge in the pocket in the side of his recliner. This was a guy who could hardly walk and didn't have much lung capacity. She finally caught him because there was chocolate all over the seat of his recliner. We both got yelled at but it seemed pretty funny at the time.

That's how good this fudge is.

VELVEETA CHEESE FUDGE

2011-11-23T08:18:00.000-08:00

About 20 years ago a friend gave me his wife's recipe for Velveeta Cheese Fudge. I wouldn't have taken the recipe except that he brought some fudge with it and I had never tasted anything like it.

Every Christmas I make this fudge and a few years ago we were watching the cooking channel and Paula Dean was making it. I tell everyone that she got the recipe from me. :0)

My friend Lynda Moseley published my recipe on her blog today and people can't believe you really make fudge with Velveeta Cheese. This is Lynda's blog http://scdiva.blogspot.com/. Check out her tutorials on Etsy and Artfire. They are awesome.

So, I thought I better publish the recipe too. It's addicting. Keep it refrigerated after you make it. This recipe makes about 6 pounds of fudge so you can cut it in half. Make some with nuts and some without.

VELVEETA CHEESE FUDGE

1-POUND BUTTER

1-POUND VELVEETA CHEESE

1-CUP COCOA

4 POUNDS POWDERED SUGAR

1-TEASPOON VANILLA

NUTS OPTIONAL

MELT BUTTER AND CHEESE TOGETHER IN A REALLY BIG PAN OVER LOW

SIFT COCOA AND SUGAR TOGETHER AND PUT IN PAN WITH BUTTER AND CHEESE.

KEEP STIRRING TILL REALLY WELL MIXED AND THEN ADD THE VANILLA. STIR TILL SMOOTH. I SPRAYED A 9 BY 13 GLASS PAN WITH PAM AND POURED THE FUDGE IN IT.

THEN REFRIGERATE FOR A COUPLE HOURS. TAKE IT OUT AND LET IT SIT FOR ABOUT 20 MINUTES BEFORE CUTTING.

OK, you want something really good for Thanksgiving or Christmas? How about some GULLIVER'S CORN?

1-Pound Corn Frozen

8 ounces whipping cream ( yes, whipping cream)

1 and ½ Tablespoons Butter

1 and ½ Tablespoons Flour

½ teaspoon salt

2 Tablespoons Sugar

3 Tablespoons Parmesan

Put corn and whipping cream in pan and bring to a low boil.

Simmer 5 minutes and season with salt and sugar.

Make paste with butter and flour and add to corn and simmer 2 more minutes.

Put corn in a casserole dish and add Parmesan cheese. Dot and butter and broil.

Or put all the ingredients in a pan and cook on the stove. I also put in a little pepper because I like pepper.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving and enjoy the fudge.

STROPPEL - MAGUIRE PENDANT

2011-11-20T07:47:00.000-08:00

One of the hottest new techniques in polymer clay is The Stroppel Cane. It was developed by Alice Stroppel and she was kind enough to do a youtube video on how to make it. You can see it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y07zXuLZe20 . Thank you Alice for sharing this. It's an incredible way to use up old canes.

As I mentioned in a couple previous blogs, I was fortunate to be able to take a Barbara Maguire Face Cane class last weekend. I decided I wanted to use some of my Stroppel cane on something other than beads. My Stroppel cane has a lot of translucent in it. I found that when a cane has translucent in it, after sanding, it buffs up beautiful and shinier than if it has no translucent.

This picture doesn't reflect the beautiful shine on the piece. I'm having camera problems again and we had awnings put on the house so I lost a lot of the light that I was using for taking pictures. If you click on the picture, you will see the shine a little better. She's about 3 inches long and I haven't decided what to do with her yet. Suggestions????????

I pieced the Stroppel cane around her face, I'm going to try doing one where the cane is laid out so it matches and add the face last.

PLEASE DON'T LEAF ME

2011-11-18T15:10:00.000-08:00

My husband said I need to change my medication because he thinks I'm getting a little wild.

Since I took that face cane class from Barbara Maguire last weekend, I haven't been the same. I told him it was the shots in the back that did it but he doesn't believe me.

Today I decided to play with my face cane again.

It's not my fault I had an old leaf cane sitting on my desk. It just jumped on there. I put some walnut embossing powder on her hair to make it look like hairy hair but I only baked her at 250 so the embossing powder didn't melt. I sanded her a lot and got most of the embossing powder off. She buffed up really well. This obsession could get worse but I doubt it.

Yesterday my friend Evelyn came over so I could help her put her face cane together. She also took Barbara's class and I give her a ton of credit. She has macular degeneration and doesn't see very well. She really hung in there. She's an artist, a real artist. She taught art for 30 years. The fact that her eyesight is leaving her is so sad. She loves polymer clay and it's great therapy for her. Anyway, she didn't like her face cane because she thought the lips were too big but I think it's wonderful.

She needs a little more forehead and then I think her lips will be fine. We did a pound of translucent clay and we still didn't have enough.

I was just told by Mr. Wonderful (he is) that I should make a face cane and put little hearts around her head and call her "LOVE MY HAIR". I told him he should stick to being an Engineer. He didn't get it. :0)

FACE CANES - FIRST PENDANT

2011-11-15T19:55:00.000-08:00

Today I took a piece of my face cane that had the gun shot wound in it and tried to manipulate it. I put it on some white clay and used the left over eyelash cane to make hair. Baked it for an hour at 265 and the face tone turned darker than I thought it would.

She was sanded and buffed. She sure doesn't look like the beautiful women that Barbara Maguire does with her face canes but I like her. I used Photoscape to edit the picture since I have a new computer. I have a lot to learn about this new computer and tonight I'm over whelmed. Had to reinstall my media over drive to download books from the library to my IPAD and now I can't find the book. HELP ME.

This is Judy's face cane. Can't wait to see what she makes with it.

Evelyn and I will be working on her face cane Thursday. I'll post that when we get it done.

I'm getting too old for all this technology. Pretty soon kids won't know what pens and pencils and paper are.

BARBARA MAGUIRE FACE CANE CLASS

2011-11-14T18:42:00.000-08:00

This past weekend our clay guild sponsored a class with Barbara Maguire on how to do a face cane. Little did I know how involved and hard it is to build a face cane. She is a remarkable teacher and I have pictures to prove it. We started out by making a pound of translucent clay into a color that we wanted for our flesh color. Then we made the eye. I swear, I never thought what I was doing was going to look like this.

This was my eye.

This is my eye cut in half. I was so happy I was ready to quit right then and there. I thought I would just make a bunch of beads with eyeballs. Would make for great golf stroke counters.

You guessed it. Now I have the lips.

The nose. Doesn't look like much does it?

This was Barbara's final face cane.

This is my final face cane after lots of reduction and beating her on the table to get the clay to move.

I apparently didn't pack her forehead very well and it looks like she got shot with a 45 caliber. She'll be fine once I slice her and move her lips back and give her some hair. She looks like she is trying to tell me something like "FIX THOSE GUN SHOT WOUNDS IN MY FOREHEAD".

It was really fun and we had it had a great place, nice and close.

I'm finally on my new computer. The shots in the back haven't quite stopped hurting yet but I hope in another week I'll be back to normal what ever that is.

THREE IS A CHARM ------- I HOPE AND BARBARA MAGUIRE CLASS

2011-11-12T05:46:00.000-08:00

My husband needed a new computer because he is a day trader and it's important to have all this geek stuff in good condition. He decided I could have his old computer. He spent 4 days transferring my stuff to his old computer and kept asking me why I made quadruplicates of all my pictures????? I never did that. Then he wanted to know why I had all these folders full of PDF tutorials on my email. Well, duh. That's where they came from so that's where I kept them. OK, now I'm getting stressed. I had some tutorials in files on my desktop that I used a lot and he wanted to know why. Do you other non-geek people have this problem? Anyway, 5 days later he finds out that my computer had 12 non-death-threatening viruses. He fixed those, transferred my stuff and the computer died. OK, first trip was to Best Buy. Got a computer, started again and the CD burner didn't work. Back to Best Buy. Went to Costco got another computer, started setting it up and the thing was so loud we couldn't hear each other talk. Back to Costco to take the computer back. Off to Fry's Electronics to get one just like he got two weeks ago. I have not been able to download any new pictures and I have items I want to put in my Etsy and Artfire stores.

While this was going on I had to go for a cortisone shot in my back yesterday and when we got there he gave me shots in both sides which I didn't know was going to happen. The doctor blamed my husband for taking me on the cross country road trip in the car to my nephews wedding. It wasn't his idea but I didn't say anything. This guy was no Marcus Welby. They lied about it not hurting but today my back feels pretty good and hope it stays that way because I'm taking a two day class today and tomorrow with Barbara Maguire.

BARBARA MAGUIRE FACE CANE CLASS

http://www.barbaramcguire.com/. This necklace was featured in a collection on Artfire today called "Elegantly Yours" http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=collections&op=details&cid=29840 you can see it here. There are some beautiful things in this collection including some beading tutorials.

If my new computer works soon, I'll download pictures from the class. I'm really excited about meeting Barbara and taking a class from her. I have all her books and DVDs.

This is a necklace I made with Barbara Maguire's tutorial on Mokume Gane which you buy on her website.

http://www.barbaramcguire.com/

11 - 11 -11 VETERANS DAY

2011-11-11T10:48:00.000-08:00

This is a picture of The Honor Guard from Luke Air Force Base which is only a couple miles from my house. I feel very privileged to be able to see the jets circle the sky above us and to hear their noise even though it shakes the house sometimes. I would never complain about the noise because I know they are training to fly those big birds in order to keep America safe. I love the idea that I can go in a store around this area and see men and women in their fatigues and uniforms. They are all so young and so proud. I've been in restaurants where older veterans have picked up the tab for someone there in uniform. I even bought an ice cream cone for a guy in uniform once, made me feel great. He didn't want me to but I convinced him it was my right to do it. The guy at the ice cream place gave me a card for a free cone after the soldier left which I thought was really nice. Now the place is closed so I guess I didn't need the cone anyway.

Want to feel good? Go out and buy a soldier or a sailor or one of our vets a meal.

Give some love to these kids. Let them know how much we appreciate them.

WATER FOR THE STEAMPUNK ELEPHANTS

2011-11-04T15:05:00.000-07:00

Last February I took 4 classes from Christi Friesen at the Tucson Bead Show. When we came home I made myself a steampunk elephant necklace and I get more compliments on that than on anything else I wear. Well, my elephant is worn out and missing some pieces, I don't think water would do him any good. I did listen to that book "Water For The Elephants" and then it came out as a movie. To me, it was a very sad and depressing book so I never went to see the movie. The other day I decided to wear my elephant for one last time. A lady came through our beading club and asked if I would make one for her daughter. I finished it today.

He's all silver and black with Groucho Marx eye brows, a monocle and lots of steampunk parts. Hope she likes him.

WOODEN NEEDLE CASE

A couple months ago I bought some wooden needle cases. I thought they would be great to carry my beading needles in and to store them. I forgot I had them. I made another Stroppel cane and decided it would look great on one of these cases.

I guess I could have beaded around it but this is more fun and less time.

This is a resin-steampunk piece I did with a Kumihimo rope necklace. It has clay in the bottom and two layers of resin on top. Someday I'll take my time and get rid of the shadows in my pictures. I set up my picture box but the lights still aren't right. This was taken outside. I need to do more resin. This was UV resin. I'm going to try the two part resin some day along with a bunch of other things. LOL No more room for stuff.

STROPPEL CANE NECKLACE

2011-11-02T06:59:00.000-07:00

As you know the latest rage in polymer clay is the Stroppel Cane by Alice Stroppel. This sweet lady even has a video on her website http://polymerclayetc.com/ showing you how to do it. Alice shares a lot of wonderful tips about polymer clay, hop over to her Etsy store http://www.etsy.com/shop/AliceStroppel and check out her cute girl friend items.

This past weekend I found a box that had some left over and end cane pieces. I decided to try the Stroppel Cane but made my black sheets a little thicker. I love doing this cane it's amazing what comes out of it.

The focal pendant has Magic Glos on it. Let me tell you about the beads. Someone told me they were using Future on raw clay. They were making beads and rubbing the Future on them to smooth them out and get the finger prints off of them. I made my beads, did the Future thing, let it dry, baked the beads at 265 degrees and they came out brown and had bubbles on them. So, I put them in the tumbler for 8 hours and most of the Future came off but they had a funny white film on them. I hand sanded them all. I don't like Future on my beads or pendants, I like sanding and buffing but was running out of time. I put 6 coats of Future on these and then put them back in the oven at 200 degrees for 20 minutes to set the Future, this gave them a glass like finish. You can click on the picture to see it closer. Thanks Alice, this is fun and a great way to use up old cane pieces. I'm putting this in the craft fair this weekend. If it doesn't sell, you will see me wearing it a lot. I still have cane left so I'll have to make a bracelet and earrings to match.

WELL BEHAVED WOMEN RARELY MAKE HISTORY

2011-10-30T16:49:00.000-07:00

That is one of my favorite sayings. I thought I would share it with you so you have an excuse to not behave.

Unfortunately, I've been too well behaved lately. I've been working on my items for the craft fair and making snow people. I should be out golfing and bowling and riding my bike but a lower back problem has been holding me back from doing all those things. Hope to see a back doctor this week so I can get out of the studio and do something fun. The weather here is Arizona is getting beautiful now. I feel bad for the people on the east coast with all that snow. I remember driving to work in snow and seeing cars sliding all over the road and in ditches. I swore when I retired I never wanted to see snow again. That's why we are in Arizona. No more snow for me. I do miss it on Christmas day though. OK, enough of the boring stuff.

I finished two more snow people today. I'm still obsessed with these things.

This is Susie Snowflake. She has long blond hair and wears too much makeup on her wrinkled face. She reminds me of that country western song "I like my women a little on the sleazy side".

I'm having camera problems again so bear with me.

This is Michael Mistletoe. As you can see by all the little hearts, he's a sweetheart. He's got a little steampunk thing going on.

Tomorow would have been Booboo's 20th birthday. I was thinking about doing a whole blog on him from the time he was little until the day he passed but I might just celebrate his birthday quietly and think about all the great times we had together and all the entertainment he gave us while he was here.

RIP my dear friend and Happy Birthday to a very special guy. We love you.

ANOTHER OBSESSION AND IT NEVER ENDS

2011-10-28T09:30:00.000-07:00

As my snowman and snow girl obsession continues to grow, I'm getting very little else done. I did finish another necklace for the craft fair and I only 5 days left until I have to turn everything in. These snow people are now getting names. I think I need group therapy for this obsession. Is there a polymer clay snow people group out there? I'll bring the wine and the whine.

This is Happy Harry. He's hanging from a woman's neck and that's why he's happy. You can click on the picture to see him up close.

This is Sideways Sam. He has a leaf on his head and a few berries. The leaf looks a toupe that didn't quite sit straight when he was in a hurry to get dressed this morning.

This is Jingle John. His ornaments match his scarf and mittens.

My sister thinks I should make a Mr. and Mrs. Snowman for everyone in the family. If I start now, I could be done by Christmas 2012.

HALLOWEEN CLOWN GIVE AWAY

2011-10-26T15:25:00.000-07:00

This beautiful clown necklace is being given away by Angie of Hopemore who does beautiful work. I love this necklace. Please visit her blog and leave a comment to have a chance to win it. But don't get your hopes up too much. IT'S MINE.

CINDY CREATED A MONSTER

2011-10-25T12:04:00.000-07:00

I'm suppose to be working on my stuff for the craft fair. I'm running out of time and I have a ton of pieces to finish.

Last Friday, Cindy Lietz http://www.beadsandbeading.com/blog/did a tutorial on snowmen. They were adorable but I live in Arizona and I don't think about snowmen or snow women. Well, all day Friday and Saturday I started thinking about making snowmen. I wanted new ornaments for my tree so I thought this would be fun and I could make a bunch. I'm really not into cutesy but this was really bugging me. Saturday afternoon I put all my other stuff away, watched the video again started making snow people.

I wanted them to have arms and mittens. I showed them to my husband and he asked how you tell the boy from the girl. Well Duh.....she's wearing a tiara and earmuffs to keep her dainty little ears warm.

I now have 3 more ready for the oven. I'm obsessed, thanks Cindy.

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, the weather outside is frightful (85) degrees but the polymer is so delightful and if you've no place to go, too bad.

ELEVEN DAYS AND COUNTING - STILL NOT CHRISTMAS

2011-10-22T18:05:00.000-07:00

My studio/office has finally hit "DISASTER AREA" status. Normally my 8 foot table is clean because I do beading on one side and polymer clay on the other. I have 25 plastic, divided cases that I keep my big beads in and a 6 drawer cabinet that has my seed beads in. Since I've been working furiously to get things done for the craft fair, I am now in total chaos.

I normally wouldn't show this picture but I thought my BFF's could use a laugh. They usually rave about how clean and organized I am when they come over. Wait till they see this. I have a great rolling chair so I just roll back and forth to where ever I need to work. I also have a CD player on this table. I listen to books while I'm working. Our library needs some new books. I think I've heard them all. I just can't remember which ones I've listened to and sometimes I bring the same ones home.

At least I finished two more pieces today.

This is a crystal, glass heart that I didn't know what I was going to do with. I've had it a long time and it was on a cheap rope. The heart is really beautiful. I like it with the turquoise and silver, hope it sells.

The large bead is polymer clay that I did in the ribbon weave pattern. The gold and black beads are vintage pieces. A friend gave me her aunts jewelry after her aunt passed and there was a lovely necklace that I took apart and used on some other pieces. These are two of the beads from the necklace. Can't decide if I want to leave it this way or add another chain from the middle of the top to the two side chains. What do you think? The top seems kind of lonely.

I knew this fair was coming 3 months ago. What was I thinking?

TWELVE DAYS AND COUNTING - NO NOT CHRISTMAS

2011-10-21T15:33:00.000-07:00

In 12 days I have to turn my items in that I want to sell in the craft fair that our city is having. I belong to the Beading club here and we are going to have a huge booth and each member is allowed to turn in 20 items and 10 pairs of earrings to sell. Since I do polymer clay, I want everything I turn in to have some polymer on it. I'm making earrings but without the polymer. I finished 4 pieces so far for the craft fair and I only have 12 days to go. My muse is back but I think she's having hot flashes.

I finished this one today. It's kind of eclectic. Lots of beads and silver stuff. The necklace is two pieces of Kumihimo with size 6 black beads and clear drops. The swirl bead is quite large. Haven't decided what price I want to put on it yet. We have to pay the city and the beading club takes a small amount to support some of our projects and the seller has to pay the taxes. So by the time they are finished taking their share, I'm not left with much.

This is one of my favorite pieces and I was going to keep it for myself but I decided to sell it. I'll just have to make another one.

BARBARA MAGUIRE CLASS

I'm really excited, I'm going to a 2 day face cane class with Barbara Maguire. Our guild is sponsoring it. I've never done a face cane before so this should be interesting and I love Barbara Maguire. I have all her books and her most of her products. One of the ladies in our guild set the class up and did a great job. It will be held close to us this time so we don't have to drive to the other side of Phoenix. I'm not good at faces or sculpting so if it doesn't look bad when I'm done, I'll post pictures of it.

CALL 911, SOMEONE STOLE MY MUSE

2011-10-15T17:14:00.000-07:00

The Sun City West craft fair is November 5th and I'm trying to get pieces done to put in the craft fair but someone stole my muse about a week ago. When I talked to my BFF's they said the same thing happened to them. I think it started when someone sneaked in and spiked my oven and burned all my pieces. I've been looking at pictures on the computer and in magazines to see if my muse would come back. Yesterday I got a migraine so I took my pill and laid down before I fell down (pretty strong stuff). While I was laying down I had all these awesome ideas about putting pieces together, and then I fell asleep. When I woke up, they were gone again. How and why does that happen? Today I decided I would only touch one piece and not touch anything else until I had a finished piece.

This is a pendant I made when we were up in Prescott at our clay retreat. It has chain and green ribbon cord. This is one of my favorite cats. He seems very arrogant but stately. I double wrapped the neck piece just to take a picture of the clasp. A friend wanted to see how I finished it.

You can click on the pictures to see them closer. The colors in this one are really pretty. I made the necklace out of Kumihimo with size 8 seed beads and also used those for the bail. I really like this one so if it doesn't sell it will be mine. LOL

So, now I have three pieces done and 27 to go. I need some elves to help me.

The chiropractor will be back Monday and that's the last vacation he's ever going on. Maybe after he twists me around and gets my back straight my muse will show up again. Where do you look for a missing muse??????? Call 911

WHAT A WONDERFUL SURPRISE

2011-10-08T12:05:00.000-07:00

Today is our 30th anniversary of being married and our anniversary of moving to Arizona and moving in our house. I put a note on facebook about how we thought Booboo (the cat) got out of the house on October 8, 2002 when the moving men were going in and out. We searched frantically for that little cat. After the moving men left I heard a noise in the kitchen and found him trying to open the cupboard door to get out. I can't imagine how he got in. He must have gone up there to hide from all the commotion. Boo would have been 20 years old this Halloween and since most of my life was spent talking and playing with that cat, I'm sure I mentioned it at least 100 times or more. LOL

Today when the mail came there was a package in it from Anita Brandon, a very talented polymer clay artist, who lives in Cottonwood, AZ which is about 2 hours from here. We have never met but we have been emailing each other for a couple of years now. When I opened the package I was speechless. The note on the inside read "Bonnie, in memory of Booboo your sweet Halloween fur person". Then the tears started.

Anita made me a special cat in memory of Booboo.

Isn't he the cutest and most beautiful cat you've ever seen? I told Anita, Booboo wasn't an angel until the day he died. My friends called him "The Devil Cat". He would let them pet him and then try to eat their fingers.

Anita has a wonderful line of Christmas cats in her Artfire store right now at
http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/studio/MelodyODesigns. Her cats are so cute and if you have friends who are cat lovers, they have to have one of these to hang on the tree.

Anita, thank you again for the Angel Cat. I will treasure him forever.

BASKET WEAVE WITH POLYMER CLAY

2011-10-07T18:27:00.000-07:00

Last week I did a demo at our clay retreat in Prescott. I thought it was called a basket weave but it was actually called Woven Ribbon. It came from the winter of 2003 Polymer Cafe. Not only was it fun, it was a big hit. Everybody was doing it. The Lumiere paints really add dimension to the clay. I sold all the pendants I made even before they were cooked. I had an order for two more so I made some today and a strange thing happened. They stuck to the paper and three of them didn't feel like they were cooked hard enough.

This is after the first baking. They look normal except for the paper on the bottom. I decided to put them back in the oven (convection oven). I turned the heat up to what I thought was 265 for Premo. I had baked them on 250 for an hour.

After 15 minutes I smelled the burning. The card stock is brown, the pendants blew up and got puffy and don't come off the card stock. The black bottom layer of clay looks and smells like tar. This was 2 packages of brand new black Premo that I bought at Michael's yesterday. Never had this happen at the retreat or when I did it before. This technique takes a lot of time to do. I feel like I just wasted a whole afternoon. Glad I didn't have the oven in the garage again. I'm wondering if the Lumiere paints can't take the higher heat. I know at the retreat we had them set at 265. I just put the thermometer back in the oven and set the stat on 200. In 5 minutes it read 475. This is a GE convection oven that I've had for less than 6 months. I bought it at Wal-Mart and didn't keep the receipt. After 3 months I don't normally keep them because of all the paper that piles up. I'm going to send GE an email and see what they say.
Watch your ovens. Preheat them and check the temps. We did have a lot of items get burned up at camp but mine weren't among them so I thought I was lucky. We did have 6 ovens going at one time and the electric couldn't handle it. As soon as the electric came on the ovens spiked again and what ever was in them burned. Too much hard work not to be careful.

Here's my laugh for the day though.

PEONY CANE - WHAT'S TAKING YOU SO LONG?

2011-10-06T07:32:00.000-07:00

Had 5 wonderful days in Prescott with my BFF's at the Arizona Polymer Clay Guild's annual retreat. Before I left, I printed out a copy of the directions to make a peony cane. Judy, my table partner, also printed out those directions so you can imagine our surprise when we both said we were going to make a peony cane. We started at the same time but I was done with mine in a little over an hour and Judy was still working on hers 6 hours later. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what was taking her so long. Well, I was missing 3 pages in my directions. There were suppose to be 15 pieces of cane that you put together but no not me, I had 6 pieces so my peony was a little less dramatic.

Love the colors and I'm sure it will make pretty beads.

This is what the real peony cane should look like and the directions are here http://www.catherienarts.com/en/the-peony-cane/. Thanks Cat, sorry I screwed it up.

What do you call half of a peony? Tee hee hee.

I'M SO EXCITED, I JUST CAN'T HIDE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2011-09-26T20:34:00.000-07:00

This Wednesday 25 people from the Arizona Clay Guild are going to Prescott, AZ for a 4 day retreat.

This is the building we will be spending 12 hours a day in doing polymer clay. This is my 5th year of attending camp and it gets better every year. We have demos, exchange gifts, share techniques, the food is wonderful and we have lots of snacks. I packed 100 packages of clay today. I plan to make as many different kinds of canes as I can. I'll post them when I get back.

Every person going to camp is donating an item to what we call "Goody Bags". I guess I can show you what I made now since it's only one day away.

These are polymer clay magnet sticks. There is a heavy duty magnet on each end. I use mine all the time for picking up my clay blades (I drop them a lot and they are hard to pick up from the floor) or to hold the blade while you are working. These can also be used to hold metal pieces when you are making jewelry. It will stick to your pasta machine and the blade can be held there. My husband actually designed this. He has one in the garage for picking up screws and little things that he drops.

If you want to see some great gifts check out my friend Lupe's blog http://gesmpccorner.blogspot.com/. Her spice jars are gorgeous and she's saving one for me with a cat on it.

Hope all my stuff fits in the car. Every year I say I'm not going to bring as much and I still do.

This was last year.

I have 3 less bags this year. I'M SO EXCITED.

HOME SWEET HOME

2011-09-24T16:15:00.000-07:00

After 15 days on a road trip, I was so glad to get home. We drove to Wisconsin from Arizona and on the way there the rubber blew off the windshield wiper. Had to find a KIA dealer and we were 200 miles from Albuquerque. A really nice guy there waited for us even though it was almost closing time. He was standing in the parking lot holding the windshield wipers. By now my husband and the GPS (Moaning Myrtle) have had numerous fights and it was only our first day on the day.

I don't know about Dorothy and Toto but I never want to see Kansas again. We don't normally drive through there but thought we would like to see some different parts of the country. KANSAS HAS COWS. Millions and millions of cows. We got caught in a storm that made me stop breathing. I was sure I was going to see the Wizard of Oz. No more Kansas for me Toto. The GPS was trying to get the best of us by now and John was really starting to dislike her.

One of my nephews is a computer geek and teaches all things computers. He talked John into buying me an IPAD Touch so he wouldn't have to listen to Myrtle anymore. I was so excited. Now I can get my email any where and watch you tube and read books.

Little did I know how much technology there was in this thing and I would have to figure out how to sync stuff from IPOD to IPAD and learn how to go from Microsoft to Apple and another whole system. My brain is over whelmed.

From Wisconsin we drove to Chicago to go my godson's/nephew's wedding. It was beautiful. The bride was gorgeous.

Her dress was beautiful. I think there was $100,000 worth of shoes in the church. I've never seen so many fancy shoes in my life. Unfortunately for me, my high heel shoe wearing has come to an end. I had 3 inch heels on for 2 hours and got a blister the size of New Jersey on my toe.

The fun part of the wedding was when the bride and her bridesmaids showed up at the church in a Chicago Trolley.

When the wedding was over the Trolley took the bridal party all over for picture taking. When we got to Chicago it was cold and raining. The day of the wedding it was 71 and sunny and the day after the wedding it was 57 and raining.

I brought home some of the flowers from the wedding. I'm going to dry them and put them in polymer clay and make beads for all the girls in the family. I put the flowers in a Ziplock bag and sucked the air out of the bag with a straw. It has been a week now and this is what they look like.

THE RIDE HOME

We left Chicago Monday morning and drove to Joplin, MO. Tuesday we stopped for lunch in Clinton, OK and when we came out the battery was dead. Lost 3 hours in Clinton getting a new battery so we only made it to Amarillo. The next morning we were packing the car and there was a 7 inch crack in the passenger side window. We drove 12 hours to get home because we were afraid something else might go wrong. At least John and the GPS quit fighting and she quit saying "RECALCULATING".

Next week is our 4 day clay guild retreat in Prescott, AZ. 4 days of nothing but clay and fun. I can't wait. I washed clothes and ironed for 2 days now I get to pack my clay stuff. I always overpack.

Hope to have some good pictures for the blog when I get back.

HOME SWEET HOME

POLYMER - SAND AND BUFF, SAND AND BUFF, SAND AND BUFF

2011-09-03T08:58:00.000-07:00

I made a flower cane.

From the flower cane I made two pendants.

This one doesn't have a bail yet. Still thinking about what I want to do with it.

This one is in a silver bezel so I'm doing a Kumihimo rope with size 11 black seed beads. When I make a large pendant out of a small cane, I do it by cutting a piece off the cane that is at least 1/2 inch long and rolling it with the roller just like you do to make a pie crust and then run it through the pasta machine. It doesn't distort the pattern AS MUCH.

When I first started doing polymer clay 9 years ago someone told me to use Diamond Varathane or Future floor wax to finish them. After lots of internet research, I decided I liked the look of sanding and buffing better. The Future and Varathane are a must if you use mica powders on your pieces but make sure you put them back in the oven on 200 for at least 20 minutes after they are dry so it sets the finish. I'm on my 3rd buffer, I own 3 rock tumblers and have a shelf full of sand paper. When I sand a pendant or polymer clay piece, I start with 320 grit and go to 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1200, 1500, 2000, 2500 and finish with 3000. I prefer to throw things in the tumbler for 15 hours with the river rocks. Much easier. The point is, polymer looks like glass when it is sanded and buffed. But thumbs look like meatloaf if you don't wear gloves when you are sanding. LOL

I have a wonderful outlet now where I am selling my polymer pieces and I brought this one in yesterday and it sold before I got home.

Got a call saying the lady who bought it wanted another one somewhat like it if I could. I don't have that cane anymore but with the addition of a small amount of translucent and pearl, everything you make will shine, shine, shine after sanding and buffing. You only need a pinch of translucent to make your pieces really shine. I ususally mix it in with one of the colors of the cane.

WARNING, WARNING, WARNING

I ordered some beads over the internet and it said there would be 38 grams in the bag. Many projects tell you how many grams of seed beads you need for a project. When I got the bag yesterday it looked kind of small. I have a scale that weighs in grams and ounces and I weighed the bag and it only weighed 36 grams with the bag. I sent the company an email and they were sorry and couldn't figure out how it happened but they are sending me the missing beads which probably equals 100 beads which could be the difference between finishing a project or not. Don't take bead weights for granted. Buy a scale. I use it for weighing envelopes before I mail them to make sure I know the post office is correct. I verified the scale with the ones at a couple post offices.

I had my first international sale on Artfire this week. YIPPEEEE A lady from Hong Kong bought 4 items. Thanks to Lynn Reno I got through it. She told me about the custom forms and how she packages things for shipping. Check out Lynn's shop on Artfire http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/studio/DesertRubble, her steampunk items are awesome.

SISSY'S LATEST PICTURE

This is Sissy, I posted pictures of her when she was little. Look at those eyes. She's a smarty. She belongs to my friend Pat but I get lots of kisses when she sees me. Wish she was mine.

GOODBYE IRENE - HERE COMES THE NETTING AND JADE

2011-08-28T15:43:00.000-07:00

I have two friends on the east coast and I sent them emails last night to find out if they were ok and both are doing just fine.

One of them is Linda of http://lindasartbarn.blogspot.com/. She's in Vermont, but if you read her blog and see her beautiful picture, she'll tell you about what she's did to prepare for Irene. I've always wanted to go to Vermont. Probably because of the maple syrup and now I can go see Linda.

The other one is Lynda of SC Diva Designs. Lynda is is one of the most talented woman I know when it comes to polymer clay. I've purchased many of her tutorials from Etsy and the latest is her Faux Jade Tutorial http://www.etsy.com/listing/68710253/faux-jade-tutorial-6-with-16-color just click on the link and it will take you right there. This is one of the most complete tutorials I've ever seen. Her instructions on finishing are worth the price of tutorial. Not only that, she gives you recipes for 16 different colors of jade. This Friday I woke up with another one of my killer migraines but I decided I wasn't going to let it get me down and I was going to make some faux jade. After I was done, I realized I had done one of the steps backwards from the way Lynda does it but I like the way these turned out. I used a different kind of clay than Lynda suggests in her tutorial and I got plaquing but I like it and Lynda did too.

I added more translucent to the 3 on the right because the green lady was kind of mushy when I was working on her. The bottom one I hand carved the other 3 I used stamps. You can click on them to see them up close. I spent a lot of time sanding and buffing them.

WEDDING JEWELRY

The wedding is 3 weeks from yesterday. I got my shoes in the mail yesterday. Patent leather sandals with 3 inch heels.

I left the picture small because I have big feet and it wouldn't look so bad. Anyway, I have to practise walking in these. I haven't had a 3 inch heel on in 20 years. Wish me luck. I have to take the gifts to the altar in the church. Hope there is a Wayne Crane there to pick me up when I fall. They really are comfortable, at least they were while I was sitting down :0). If you have any suggestions about how to walk in heels, now is the time to come forward.

Anyway, I finished the netted necklace and now Mr. Fashionista says it isn't fufu enough for the wedding outfit. So, I'll wear it for the rehearsal dinner.

Needs a bracelet and earrings to match. If this headache ever goes away I'll start one. If anyone has a remedy for migraines, please let me know. I'm doing a polymer clay class tomorrow with a lady that does energy healing. She is going to show my husband the pressure points so he can help with my headaches. I told him that and he gave me one of those funny looks and then poked me in the forehead and said "how's that?). He still doesn't get it :0).

BIRTHDAY SURPRISE

2011-08-24T18:47:00.000-07:00

I've been celebrating my birthday for over a week now even though it was Monday. I wasn't going to tell anyone how old I was but all my classmates from high school sent birthday wishes and "Welcome to Medicare" wishes. I wanted to cry.

Today my 3 BFF's took me on a surprise outing for my birthday. They picked me up at 9 a.m. and we ended up in Sedona.

This was the view from the restaurant. It's Red Rock country and it's beautiful.

This was brought to me after lunch. I have no will power. It's a hot brownie with ice cream and whipped cream. Glad my friends helped me with that. Good thing this birthday is almost over :0).

This is a mini bag that I got from Judy. It comes apart. You buy the inside.

The inside is on the left and the pretty purple part fits around it. You can buy all different outer covers for it. It's called a Miche bag. It's going to be perfect for the wedding and I saw a gold cover for it that I might have to get.

These are some polymer clay tools I got from Evelyn along with a cat shirt and a pair of capris and a little cat holder.

This is a pair of heat resistant tongs I got from Rose to take my polymer clay out of the oven and she also gave me a gift certificate to the local bead store which I will definitely use.

It was only 96 in Sedona, it was 118 on the car when we pulled into my driveway. This has to end soon.

My husband bought a pair of tennis shoes at Wal-Mart two weeks ago and the bottom melted on the side walk.

I had a wonderful day today and thank you BFF's.

BEING AWARE OF YOUR SURROUNDINGS

2011-08-23T16:21:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I put up a post about how to determine if a mirror is a mirror or a two way mirror. I posted it because I wanted women to be aware there are bad people out there and some women just aren't aware of their surroundings.

Two years ago my husband and I took a class about gun safety. When I was younger I belonged to a trap shooting team. I loaded my own shells and cleaned my own 12 gauge shotgun. In those days, there were no classes, we depended on the guys that ran the range or the ones who taught us how to shoot a gun and never thought about our surroundings or the places we shopped or visited. I thought being able to shoot a gun made me invincible.

Now days, the right to own a gun comes with a lot of responsibility including MENTAL PREPAREDNESS. Well, every time you walk out the door, you need to be mentally prepared and be aware of your surroundings. There are 4 mental states that people are in, WHITE - relaxed, unaware (you are likely to become a victim). YELLOW - relaxed but aware (you are suspicious and are in a heightened state of awareness). ORANGE - potential threat in the area you are in (time to withdraw from the situation you are in, a place where you aren't sure of the mirror, if you aren't sure, LEAVE). RED - this is your last resort, there's trouble and now you probably need to run or fight.

I get a lot of emails like the one I posted yesterday and I pass them on to my friends and people I care about. I received some emails saying that a certain internet site says the mirror test isn't totally accurate. I took the post down but not because some internet sight said it isn't real, but because the people I care about read it and are now aware. I will probably get more emails about how old people are being used to get women to help them in parking lots and then they are abducted, or how someone puts a baby carriage on the side of the road and women stop to check it out and they get attacked, abducted or killed or you should never park next to a van in a parking lot or stop to smell perfume that someone is selling in a parking lot and don't forget to look in the back seat of your car before you get in. I plan to pass those emails on forever. If it means I made someone aware of their surroundings then my email worked.

Since I took that gun awareness class I have heightened my mental state about my surroundings. At night I lock the door between the house and the garage, I'm careful where I park at malls and grocery stores and I watch people a lot. My friends joke about how much I notice but I think they also appreciate it.

I have a friend who doesn't do email. Last week she went to the grocery store and an older lady asked her if she would get into her car and watch her dog while she went to the UPS store. It was 110 here and the woman said she should sit in the air conditioned car with the dog. She was very lucky. The woman was real and gave her $10 for watching the dog. Every time I get an email like the one about the mirrors I have to tell her about it. She's sweet and kind and in the WHITE zone all the time. It's the sweet and kind and trusting people who are always the victims.

If someone sends me an email to remind me to be aware of my surroundings and I pass it on, I'm not going to worry if an internet site has checked it out or not. It put me in the "Mentally Aware of My Surroudings Zone".

Don't be a victim, make sure you are always in your YELLOW MENTAL PREPAREDNESS ZONE, BE RELAXED BUT AWARE, and tell your friends.

WEDDNG'S GETTING CLOSER, NECKLACE IS GETTING LONGER

2011-08-21T16:56:00.000-07:00

This is taking a long time but it's starting to get longer. Had to order more Preciosa beads. Didn't realize how many beads this would take. Ordered 1200 so now I have enough for a bracelet and earrings too.

Netting is great. It makes the beads slinky and soft feeling where Herringbone would have made this necklace stiffer. Click to see it bigger.

NURSING HOME EARRINGS

I just made my 100th pair of earrings for my friend at the nursing home. She's a great sales lady. She also asked for a bracelet and earrings to match.

This is the 10th pair of magenta I did. They are polymer clay with wire wrapping and chains.

More requests for long and chunky turquoise.

The large beads are polymer clay made from a cane I did a while ago. Wish I could remember what colors I used in it. She requested a stretch bracelet with lots of silver. I would not normally do it with stretch cord with that much silver but I used a 1mm size cord so it should be ok.

25,000 GIVE AWAY

I will soon have the 25,000th visitor to my blog.

When that happens I am going to do a give away. I'll be leaving for Chicago in two weeks for the wedding so I'm not sure when this give away will be or what I'm going to give away. Leave me some comments and let me know what you would like (but not the netted necklace). I'll be in a nursing home before I get another one of those done. I need some ideas. Earrings, bracelets, polymer clay pendants. I'll keep thinking about it though.

Tomorrow is my birthday and I hope someone bought me red licorice. That's what I usually get. Or, a box of Good and Plenty. Have to fit in the wedding outfit so I better go ride my bike.

WHAT'S ON MY BEADING TABLE? ANOTHER ONE???????

2011-08-17T07:14:00.000-07:00

I started another necklace that I hope will go with the top that I'm wearing to my nephew's wedding. Husband (he answers to that) said the first one wasn't glitzy enough so I'm doing a netted one with black aurora borealis 4 mm beads and size 15 and 11 antique gold seed beads. It looks big but it's really slinky. It's taking a lot of beads but I really like it.

Click on the picture a couple times to see it up close. Problem is, I have to make a bracelet and earrings to match. I just ordered 1200 more black beads. :0) Hope that's enough. If and when I finish this, I'll post the pictures.

POLYMER CLAY MOKUME GANE

I had an order for earrings made of purple and tuquoise Mokume Gane. I had some clay left so I used my tiny cutters to make hearts and did a Kumihimo necklace to match and a pair of earrings. Going to put these in my Artfire store.

I have a bucket list, actually it's a polymer clay/beading/resin list of all the things I want to do or make. I ordered some Pipettes to do resin with and I thought I ordered 100 but I got 500. Husband was in shock. How do you explain 500 pipettes? He asked me if I was going to rent a warehouse for all my stuff. He still doesn't get it. The girl with the most toys wins.

BEAD CROCHET OR KUMIHIMO

2011-08-14T16:12:00.000-07:00

I spent a couple weeks teaching myself to bead crochet. It was very cumbersome at first but I got the hang of it. This was my first necklace and I've done 3 more since then but lost interest.

About 4 months ago I decided to teach myself how to do Kumihimo (thank goodness for YOUTUBE and the internet). First I tried just doing cords on Kumihimo and I really liked that. They make wonderful places to hang polymer clay pendants. I bought a couple Kumihimo books and they used beads to make beautiful necklaces. Well, I'm hooked. I just finished my first full beaded Kumihimo necklace and decided to embellish it with daggers. This goes much faster than crocheting and I'm a really fast crocheter (with yarn). This is going to be the necklace I'm wearing to my nephew's wedding next month in Chicago. I need to make earrings and a bracelet to match.

This is a view with the magnetic crystal toggle that I put on it.

There is a pattern for daggers that I'm going to try also and I'll post that if and when I finish it. I finished the necklace itself in one night and added the daggers the next day so it didn't take long.

POLYMER CLAY BEAD GOLF STROKE COUNTERS

I found a big bag of polymer clay beads that I had made so I put together some golf stroke counters that I'm putting in my Artfire and Etsy shops. They can be used for purse blings or to count how many times you walk around the block.

The beads slide up and down the cord so you can count how many times you hit the ball or how many times you walked around the mall. I had a lady buy 4 of them and I thought she was giving them to friends for golfing but she said she was buying them to put on her purse as a purse bling.

I was going to do clay and Kumihimo this weekend and all I've done is watch golf. DUH. Will be glad when it cools off in Arizona so we can go golfing again.

FRIEND AT THE WINDOW

Friday I was getting out of the shower and I heard a strange noise in the kitchen. Husband wasn't home so I was a little nervous. I tiptoed around the corner to see where the noise was coming from and there was a mama quail pecking at our kitchen glass door. She had 7 babies out there with her. I think she was looking to come in and get a margarita. I would want one if I had seven babies. She was back again yesterday pecking at the window. I don't know what to do for her. I feel so bad. I bet those kids are driving her nuts.

WHERE ARE YOU PUTTING SUGAR?????????????????

2011-08-09T16:20:00.000-07:00

About a month ago I signed up for Groupon. Last week I got an email offering a Sugar Body Scrub. It said it would get rid of all the old, dry skin. I jumped on that thing. At my age, old, dry skin is my best friend. I called and made an appointment at this spa for today. At 10 o'clock today I was taken into my own special little world. I met the lady that runs the spa. She not only does sugar scrubs, she does massages, nails, pedicures and teeth whitening. When she said "take off ALL your clothes" I got a little nervous but I did what she told me to do. It was wonderful. After you get rubbed down with wet sugar, you get hot towels and then you get oiled up. She put warm hand bags and feet bags on me, she said it improves circulation. Glad there were no hidden cameras!!!! I had sugar put on some unusual places but I'm guessing those places are looking good right now. I bought 4 more sugar scrubs so that by Christmas I'll not only be soft, I should be very sweet with all the sugar on me. :0)

The lady that did the spa treatment was 43 years old and had slice wounds all over her arms, hands and chest. I asked her about them and she told me the story. For the last 5 years she has been donating numerous amounts of time and money to Domestic Abuse Foundations here in Arizona. Last year her husband of 23 years lost his job and took it out on her. While her four children watched, he brutally stabbed her. She was in the hospital for 5 months because her lungs were punctured. Her EX husband only got 17 years of prison time. She said the attorneys told her the only way he could have gotten more was if he had succeeded in killing her. Her and her children are going for counseling and she seems to be doing good. She is supporting the children and working two jobs.

She is putting on a fashion show here in Phoenix to support Domestic Abuse and I promised to donate some of my polymer clay jewelry pieces for their auction.

If you are reading this and you know someone who is in an abusive relationship but isn't strong enough to help them selves, help them. Not only women, men and children but animals too. Don't keep it to yourself and think that you can't help. Report them to the police before it's too late. I saw scars today that made me shiver. I've stopped young kids from abusing animals, I've reported a man for abusing his step children. I'm not the strongest person in the world or even Arizona but no one or animal deserves to be abused. Support your local thrift stores that support Domestic Abuse and animal charities. Check the internet for ways you can help. Let the abused know that there is hope for them. This lady taught me a lot today about strength and courage and putting sugar in places I didn't know it should be.

POLYMER CLAY EARRINGS

2011-08-03T16:41:00.000-07:00

As you know from previous posts I've been making earrings to send to my 96 year old friend in Wisconsin. So far she's sold about 100 pair of earrings. I sent her a pair of earrings made with polymer clay. She had 3 people that wanted to buy them but didn't want the beads on them. She finally found someone that wanted them with the beads but she called and asked me to make more without the beads. I made those a year ago and didn't keep any of the clay. I did two Mokume Ganes to try and replace the original. One with Premo 18kt gold and gold leafing and one with silver leafing. They turned out really good. I hope her customers like them.

I think these are kind of boring without beads but that's what she wanted.

It's 115 here today. My friend calls it "100 and STUPID". UV resin sure hardens up fast but 5 minutes out in the sun causes headaches. I'm still trying to figure out who talked me into moving to Arizona.

BUT IT'S A DRY HEAT

CELEBRATING 200 AND OH MY IT'S RESIN

2011-07-27T15:09:00.000-07:00

Never thought I would see the day that I could say "Hey, this is my 200th blog". Three years ago I had no idea what a blog was and here I am. YIPPEE

A BON-RO NECKLACE

As you know I love making crosses with Mokume Gane polymer clay. I've sold quite a few of them and given many away. The last two crosses that I made I used the new Premo 18kt gold and it really gave them pizazz. Rose asked me for one of the crosses and matching earrings and because I gave them to her, she made a Kumihimo necklace for the one I kept. It's going to be displayed in the library here the month of August.

Rose does Kumihimo so fast she amazes me.

RESIN, THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE OH #$%@^^!#@!

I have been experimenting with resin. I've always used Magic Glos on some of my polymer clay. About a year ago I ordered some UV resin from epoxyjewelry.com. It's a one part resin that cures in the sun. I've been following a resin blog and love the work that she does so I decided to try some.

This is the Good.

This is a bangle done in a mold (too small for my hand). It has coral and mixed chips and no hole beads. It also has a few bubbles. I had to sand the sides and re-resin the top and bottom. Not bad for the first time.

This is the Bad.

I thought I would try the resin in molds. I made the mistake of mixing Pearlex powders in the resin first. Because of the powders, the resin didn't cure. I should have done it in layers. I was able to get the uncured resin out of the molds with rubbing alcohol.

This is The $@#^%^#&(#%$

Just couldn't give up. Decided to try the Magic Glos in the mold. There was a bubble so I picked up a piece of wire to pop it, the resin got a black line through it and the wire turned nasty. Normally when I do Magic Glos, I run a BBQ lighter over it to get the bubbles out. The bear is cute but he needs more sun.

STAY TUNED - NEVER KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT

Carmi, I have some ET Lite that I will try as soon as I can find a place to put things to dry.

CLAY ON HOLD - WHY DO THEY CALL THEM EARRINGS?

2011-07-23T08:00:00.000-07:00

This was going to be my clay week. I finished the mask and made beads for my golf stroke counters and used my bead rollers to make beads for earrings (why do they call them that?) and then Jane called from the nursing home. In a previous blog I told you about my 96 year old friend who is selling earrings and jewelry and sometimes right out of her ears. I had to put the clay away and get out the beads and wires and findings and tools.

Her clients all like long and chunky. I have 26 pair that I'm sending her so far. The blue and magenta are polymer clay. I had sent her one of my crosses with earrings to match and she saw a lady wearing cross earrings and pulled her into her room and sold her the cross set :0). She just tickles me. Every time I talk to her the excitement in her voice is amazing compared to before she started doing this. I think I owe her a big bottle of vodka.

One of the pairs of earrings that Jane requested was for large, chunky crystals. I have a whole box full of antique crystals from old necklaces that I had and things I found at estate sales.

These are 3 inches long and really aren't heavy but they sure do sparkle. Hope she likes them.

BIRTHDAY PRESENTS

We are taking my friend Bev out for her birthday tonight. She requested purse blings as a gift.

The one on the left is her dog Honey. The one on the right is an old ring that she had but the band was broken off. I made a polymer clay backing for it. You can click on the picture to see it closer. I'm unhappy with the picture of Honey. I put Mod Podge on both sides and let it dry. I used Mod Podge to adhere it to the frame and let it dry. Then I put Magic Glos on it, twice. After 24 hours, the picture started doing things. Maybe I should have left the Mod Podge dry a little longer.

I need to get back to clay and finish my pieces for our retreat.

READY FOR MARDI GRAS

2011-07-20T16:40:00.000-07:00

At the July polymer clay guild meeting, Lupe Meter did a wonderful demo on how she makes masks out of polymer clay. She is very meticulous and precise with the way she places pieces on her mask. Me, not so much.

This is one of Lupe's masks and her demo on how she makes them round and beautiful.

Yesterday Evelyn and Rose came over and Evelyn wanted to make a mask so I decided I would too. While Evelyn was cutting out fancy pieces and putting little things on her mask, I found a couple little triangle cutters and started cutting out pieces of a sheet of Mokume Gane that I had done. I didn't figure to finish this thing, I'm not a mask person. I think they are beautiful but I lost interest about 1/4 of the way through. Anyway, I made the mask, put some little molds on it, didn't like the colors so I put Pearlex Powder on it. Baked it, didn't like it so I sanded some of the powder off. Didn't like it so I antiqued it. It started looking better but I knew it needed some foofoo (spelling) stuff and I don't do a lot of phew phew (spelling).

Here's my finished piece I wired feathers to it (there are little feathers flying all over my studio now). Put a large gold jump ring on the side and put the lace ribbons in. Added wire bail and a beaded hanger. You can click on the picture to see it larger. I showed it to my husband and he said "What's that for, is that suppose to be a work of art?" I think I'll hang it in his office. grrrrrrrrrrrrr

GREEN MAN

My friend Penni Jo Couch from http://www.bestflexiblemolds.com/ sent me a Green Man mold so I made a little guy and put silver and green powders on him and used watch stems for the eyes. I put a plastic neck cord on him.

I'm going to send him to my 6 year old nephew who likes monsters and tell him that Green Man is a good monster. Do you think he'll believe me?

TUMBLER TEST

I don't hand sand small beads and I do make a lot of them for my golf stroke counters. I was having a problem with my tumbler. If a bead had any white clay in it, it would come out of the tumber yellow. I know quite a few people were having that problem. I think the rubber from the tumbler bucket starts breaking down after a while. Yesterday I cut a piece of 600 grit sand paper a little bigger around than the bottom of the tumbler and put it in and placed a long piece of the same sand paper around the inside. I put my river rocks back in and ran the beads for 7 hours.

This worked really great.

These beads have translucent and white clay in them. The yellow you see was actually yellow clay but the translucent stayed clean and so did the white. I think the extra sand paper also helped to make them buff faster. I heard some people cut up cottage cheese cartons and put them in their tumblers. We don't do cottage cheese so I'm glad the sand paper worked.

CHRISTMAS IN JULY

2011-07-16T19:35:00.000-07:00

The Artfire Smooshers are having a Christmas in July Sale. I finally figured out how to put the sign up thanks to Tina Holden. I need to put more stuff in my Artfire shop but I'm so busy making earrings for the nursing home, I haven't had much time. Hopefully, next week I'll get it together. Check out the other shops that are having a sale also. They have some really neat things.

WHO NEEDS A UV LAMP???????

2011-07-13T07:50:00.000-07:00

Living in Arizona has it's advantages and disadvantages. For one thing, I never need a UV light to cure my Magic Glos. I put it on, run a BBQ lighter over it to get the bubbles out, run through the house to the back patio and there's my UV light. However, when it's 114 degrees, the Magic Glos is usually cured before I get it to the "Curing Wall" and then I'm sweating.

These are some crosses I made with a Mokume Gane that I did with the new Premo clays. It was done with Premo White Glitter, Premo 18 kt Gold, Premo Magenta and Premo Black. I also put a layer of silver leafing in between the stacks that was sandwiched between translucent. The Premo 18 kt gold is so beautiful and gives a beautiful highlight. The crosses were made with Penni Jo Couch's molds. I can't say enough good things about them.

Click on the pictures and you can see the colors better and the top one shows more of the gold.

These little ones are earrings. One of these sets is for my friend Rose who just had throat surgery and we are celebrating that there was no cancer in her thyroid. She saw the last set I made and raved about them. When she does that, I know she's begging. :0)

Arizona is hot in the summer but during the winter I play golf 3 times a week and go bike riding and walking and I'm not shoveling snow. YIPPEE Drove to work in that stuff for 30 years. I'll take the heat.

A VERY LUCKY WEEK

2011-07-11T17:12:00.000-07:00

This has been a very, very lucky week for me. Last week I got an email from Beaducation saying I won a $100 gift certificate on their blog giveaway. I didn't waste any time. I ordered new tools. I got a German, short, round nose pliers with ergonomic handles, a German chain nose pliers with ergonomic handles, a coiling pliers and a large wrap and tap pliers. They are all so comfortable to hold and handle. I've been making earrings by the bunch for my 96 year old friend in Wisconsin and I've been making my own ear pin wires and jump rings and these pliers have helped tremendously. I love Lisa Nivens Kelly and all the free tutorials that she does on Beaducation http://www.beaducation.com/. Thanks again Lisa.

These are a two part earring set. The short end is attached to the post and the long one is attached the earring back. Those new tools sure are nice when doing so many loops.

My friend Jane has ordered 60 pair of earrings so far. She is having a great time being a 96 year old sales lady but I've been so busy making earrings, my polymer clay is being ignored. That's not a nice thing.

RESIN CRAFTS BLOG GIVEAWAY

Another one of my favorite blogs is Resin Crafts by Carmi Cimicata http://resincrafts.blogspot.com/. She teaches and shares a ton of information about using resin. She shows the good and bad and tells you how to fix the bad. They had a blog contest and I won a resin tray. Now I have to bite the bullet and do something besides coating polymer clay. Her latest blog shows some beautiful things that she put into resin in the resin trays. Check it out.

WHAT A NICE SURPRISE

The mail just came and there was a really nice surprise in it. Linda Kropp from Linda's Artbarn

http://www.lindasartbarn.com/ sent me this beautiful eyelglass case that she hand painted.

Linda is a tole artist, a One Stroke Paint teacher and a jewelry designer. I have 11 pair of glasses and I can't tell you how much I love this case. 11 PAIR OF GLASSES??????? Yes, I have bifocals for watching TV and crocheting, bifocals for regular wear, computer glasses, beading glasses, bifocal sun glasses, bifocal sun glasses for reading, distance glasses for bowling, distance sun glasses for golf, etc. My husband always jokes about how many pairs of glasses I have. Sometimes he asks if I'm wearing my vacuuming glasses or my doing the dishes glasses or my walking to the mailbox glasses. HMMMMMMMMM

Thank you Linda, this will be put to great use.

THANK YOU BEADUCATION

2011-07-05T19:39:00.000-07:00

I mentioned the other day that I got an email from Beaducation http://www.beaducation.com/ saying I had won a $100 gift certificate. I was thrilled. I go to their website all the time because they have wonderful little tutorial videos about all kinds of jewelry making tips. Today I was making earrings and my round nose pliers went goofy. Instead of the tips being together they started crossing. I've made 130 pairs of earrings in the past month. $8.00 pliers don't cut it. I went to Beaducation http://www.beaducation.com/ and ordered new German made tools. I'm so excited. Check them out.

POLYMER CLAY CROSS AND EARRINGS

I don't know how many times I've mentioned how much I love Penni Jo Couch's molds from http://www.bestflexiblemolds.com/. One of her molds is a Renaissance Cross and it has little crosses in the same mold. I use many of my polymer clay canes to use in this mold. I also use Magic Glos on them. Some of them I drill a hole in the bottom and put beads in them.

I just finished this one using the Mokume Gane that I showed in a previous blog. This is going out to someone special for her special friend. You can click on it and see it larger. The good thing about her molds is, you can put them in soapy water and wash them to get out some of the old polymer clay. I also spray a little Armour All in them when I use them and the pieces pop out and the Armour All doesn't hurt the clay.

MORE EARRINGS FOR JANE

This is three of the 14 pairs I made in the last two days. I like the bottom ones, I think I'll have to make a pair for myself.

Today is my husband's birthday. I bought him two pieces of cheese cake from the Cheescake Factory. I've never seen such a happy guy. White chocolate, macadamia, carmel and Dutch Apple Carmel. I'm going to have to get him some elastic waist pants.. Why should I be the only one wearing those things????

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA - HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY

2011-07-04T07:05:00.000-07:00

The 4th of July has always been one of my favorite holidays. Not because of the picnics and the fireworks but because everyone starts thinking about the men and women who have fought and given their lives for us and how important being an American is. Not that I don't love hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill and potatoe salad, I sure do. It also meant I usually had the day off work and had a three day weekend.

As you get older, holidays start changing. When we were young we would pack up a big cooler and a grill and head out to the park or Lake Michigan and spend the day just having fun. Now most of my holidays are spent doing what I do on non holidays. Polymer Clay, making jewelry, cleaning toilets. OH BOY.

Last night we went with some friends to Lake Pleasant Park in Arizona. It's about a half hour north of us and has a beautiful lake that needs some rain. They had fire works and food vendors and music. We left at 6 o'clock and got caught in a dust storm on the way there. It came up again while we were there, boy was it dirty. It took a half hour to get a corn dog and a drink because the lines were so long but it was a good corn dog.

All of a sudden the wind stopped and it was very quiet. The music stopped and the Honor Guard from Luke Airforce Base came out, you could have heard a pin drop.

Every one got to their feet and sang the National Anthem.

No sooner did the honor guard leave and it started lightening. I was sitting in a metal based chair and got a little nervous. My husband said it was cloud to cloud so I shouldn't worry??? Like that meant something to me. They started the fire works and they were beautiful.

Then it started raining. So now I'm really dirty from the dust storm, it's lightening and I'm getting wet and the dirt is running down my face and legs and neck. All of a sudden there are 5,000 people trying to get to their cars. I'm carrying the dog and a folding chair, can't see out of my glasses, John has 3 folding chairs, my friend is dragging her 9 year old granddaughter and we can't find her car. The cars were going every which every way so we couldn't tell where the aisle was that the car was in.

Ok, now we're in the car, no one will let us out. It's a one lane exit out of the park. I'm the only one that went to the bathroom at the park because they had port-a-potties and it was 110 yesterday before the FESTIVITIES began. Are you getting this picture? It took us an hour to go 1/2 mile. There was an accident on Carefree Highway. The police were stopping cars to check for DUI's and everyone in our car but me and the dog had to go to the bathroom. We got home 2 hours later and had to take a shower to get the mud off of us. If I was 9, I bet I would have thought that was a good time. The only thing I have left to say now is:

GOD BLESS AMERICA AND ALL THE MEN AND WOMEN IN THE ARMED FORCES WHO PROTECT US SO THAT WE CAN ENJOY FIREWORKS AND CORN DOGS.

HOW HOT IS IS?

2011-07-02T15:45:00.000-07:00

This is the thermometer on our back patio. It doesn't go farther than 120. Some of this is from the reflection of the patio cement but most of it is HEAT. I did some Magic Glos today and ran it outside to put on the wall. It was hard before I got to the wall. I took out salmon and put it in a pan and set it on the wall. Why heat up the house? This heat is the reason women in Arizona have to keep buying so much underwear, the elastic drys out. I moved here because I lived in snow for 55 years and swore I would never drive in it again but this is nuts.

The bugs are coming in and asking for margaritas.

HOW NICE IS THAT?

2011-07-01T15:48:00.000-07:00

I just got an email from "Beaducation" http://www.beaducation.com/ saying I won a $100.00 gift certificate. I'm so excited. I love their stuff and I love watching their tutorials. I can buy some new tools. My round nose pliers are all twisted and I need new wire straighteners. This is so exciting. Go to their website and check them out. Lisa Niven Kelly does some awesome videos. Thank you Beaducation and Lisa.

LIZARD TAILS

As I mentioned before, I took a class from Julie Picarello and she showed us how to do lizard tails with left over clay. Wednesday at our beading club I did a class on Stamped Mokume Gane and lizard tails. The girls loved it and they had some beautiful stuff come out of it. I forgot to take pictures. I chose 6 colors to use for my Skinner Blends. I was trying to use up some old clay. This is how my piece turned out:

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this yet but I see some pendants and earrings and beads in there. Not sure I like the orange but it's there now.

I had some pieces of this clay left over and made a big lizard tail. I cut out a couple pendants. Not done with those yet and had some more left and made another lizard tail. Had enough to cover a light switch plate. Husband said the colors "were interesting and the room would have to be white". He's funny.

I textured this with 100 grit sandpaper and put light green Perfect Pearls on it to change the whole pink thing going on with it. It's been sanded and buffed. Click for close up.

Beadwork Magazine had a neat pattern for a covered pearl in it. I made a pair for Jane. Told her it was her June bonus for selling so many earrings. I ordered some 2mm round Swarovskis. That's what the magazine calls for. I didn't have any so I used Delicas, 11 seed beads and size 15 Myuki's. She'll sparkle plenty.

Back to sanding. Phooey.

EARRINGS ARE GONE - BACK TO CLAY -YIPPEE

2011-06-28T11:12:00.000-07:00

Mailed the earrings and coral necklace this morning so now I can get back to claying. Yippeeeeeeeeeee

A WONDERFUL GIFT

My husband and I go to breakfast every Sunday morning at the same restaurant. We see the same people in there every Sunday. One of the ladies is a member of my golf league. We usually chat for a couple minutes. Last year on the 4th of July I was wearing my beaded flag bracelet and she raved about it so I gave it to her. Last Sunday she handed me a little bag with two wrapped items in it.

She knew I love cats and she knew I lost Booboo. These are refrigerator magnets. The wood one on the right looks like it had been inlaid. The metal one on the left has Boo's smile.

LIZARD TAIL PENDANT

Finished one of my pendants today. I used black chain, large silver beads and black volcano beads. Showed it to my husband and he said it was too long so I re-did it shorter and I like it better. His suggestions don't always work but most of the time he's right. (Who said that?)

Camera and I are having a fight again. This should be brighter. Click on the picture to see it better. I really like it.

Hey Booboo, got two new cats but they don't like tuna and don't make noise.

EARRINGS, EARRINGS AND OH YES, MORE EARRINGS

2011-06-27T11:32:00.000-07:00

My 96 year old friend Jane who is in a nursing home back in Wisconsin is having the time of her life. I haven't heard her this happy in a long time. In a prior post I mentioned that she dresses up every day and in the past 8 years I've made her earrings and necklaces to go with every outfit. In the last month she's started quite a little business out there with the nurses and employees of the home. They all saw her earrings and asked if she could get more. She's been selling earrings for me by the dozens. My fingers are sore from bending wires. I talked to her yesterday and she gave me an order for 9 more pair besides the pink ones I was trying to finish. She sold a pair right out of her ears (she asked if it was ok that she used the money to buy a bottle of vodka). They bring her a martini every night. When 4 o'clock rolls around she calls it "Martin Hour". Now she got a pad of paper and is designing earrings. She tells me how exciting it is. I'll see her in September when we go back for my nephew's wedding. This is what I have been doing all weekend.

This is the pink set. You can click on the picture to see them up close.

I like these with the black pearls.

Everything for this lady had to be in silver.

She also wanted chunky and turquoise so I put posts on the front ones. They aren't as heavy as they look.

Next request was long, coral. Must be silver.

Burgundy and dress up.

This lady wanted long and fun, I like these too. All three women that I'm making earrings for are over 6 feet tall. I told Jane "that's quite a height requirement for working there".

More long and fun.

Black and white and silver.

I wish I had bought more fancy headpins and lever back ear wires. They all wanted lever backs. Made some of my own headpins and hammered them.

I'm going to sit on a heating pad. My back is tired. Now I just have to pack them up and mail them.

Hey Booboo, I'm doing better but I think about you every day. I think this Halloween in honor of your birthday I'm going to eat tuna fish all day and sleep in the closet.

LIZARD TAILS AND SWIRLY YARN

2011-06-24T12:03:00.000-07:00

A few years ago I took a class from Julie Picarello and found out what to do with all the left over clay I had. Now everyone can make lizard tails. Her new book is awesome. Has everything we learned in class and more. It's called "Patterns in Polymer, Imprint and Accent Bead Techniques". If you don't have it you need it.

Anyway, I've been doing a lot of canes to make the "mystery items" that are going in the goody bags for our guild's retreat in September. I had to make 25 items so that's a lot of canes. With the leftovers, I usually make Natasha beads or bead centers. This time I made big lizard tails and made pendants out of them.

This is about 3 inches in diameter. I'm thinking a beaded bail and a Kumihimo rope. This was cut out of the middle of a flattened lizard tail.

This is the piece that was left when I cut out the one above it.

This is a lizard tail with the bottom cut off. Looks like a hot air balloon to me. This took two sandings and two buffings.

This cane was done with left over clay. There's a little blue in there that really shines. I think this is going to get a Kumihimo rope too.

This pendant has it's own bail in the back. These colors are much prettier in real life. I made the bail from clay.

I wrapped the bail around a paint brush and baked it. When it was cool. I slipped it off the paint brush and cut 1/4 of the back off so it would lay flat. I put some Sculpey Bake and Bond on it and then rebaked it. It really worked well. That stuff bakes really hard and stays put. I found a stamp set at Office Max to use to make my name plates so I can start putting my name on my pieces. It has two sizes of letters. This is the large one. I think I'll start using the smaller one. It's a really good set, a little costly but not bad.

This is a scarf I just finished knitting. It's really a fun pattern. The lady that gave me the pattern thought the swirls looked like potatoe chips but to me it looks like chocolate and vanilla ice cream. But everything looks like that to me. :0) I asked my friend Judy to model the scarf. Don't you love the Bubba Gump tee shirt?

I finished another with the same yarn but it has pockets on each end so you can put your hands in the pockets of your scarf to keep them warm. Now you are asking "why are you knitting when it's 114 degrees in Arizona". Because I'm a KNIT WIT. Ha ha ha.

Hey Booboo, I changed the picture in the frame. Now there is a picture of you there looking all sweet and cuddly. It's not funny. You and I know the real truth. MEOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

BIRD HOUSES, BOOKMARKS AND BEADS OF COURAGE

2011-06-17T16:08:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is our monthly clay guild meeting and we are doing a book mark swap. Somepeople are doing those big paper clips but I decided to "dance to my own tune". I bought some metal bookmarks and made birdhouses to put on them.

There are only 8 of us in the swap this time so I decided to make my own little bags to put the bookmarks in. I bought some beautiful paper in the scrap booking section at Wal-Mart for $5.00 for 50 sheets. It worked great. I had some but it was too heavy.

This paper worked great and I made labels with my name on them and a picture of Booboo sitting in a box. These are easy to make and look better than a plastic bag.

BEADS OF COURAGE

Every month we have a different theme for our Beads of Courage collections. This month it's "Everything Girls". I didn't have a lot of time because I was working on the bookmarks and the things for the goody bags for our Prescott retreat and Jane's earrings. I did get a couple beads done.

The roses and the butterflies are made with Penni Jo Couch's molds, which I love. Next month is anything boys and sports. That should be interesting. Got any ideas, let me know.

Hey Booboo, today at Wal-Mart a lady tried to give me a coupon for free cat food. I told her you were probably eating fresh caught fish and bonbons now. She gave me a funny look. I couldn't tell her you liked TV dinners, she would have thought I was nuts.

HOPE FOR THE EARRINGS AND EARRINGS FOR HOPE

2011-06-12T19:40:00.000-07:00

My friend Jane from the nursing home called me Friday and said one of her nurses was there and wanted me to make some earrings for her. She loved the ones I made for Jane. She put the nurse on the phone and we got acquainted. Her name is Hope and she is 6 feet tall and has longer hair and likes "far out" earrings that hang a little long even though she's 49. Nothing like throwing a few challenges at me in one sentence. Then she proceded to tell me what colors she would like. Challenge number 2. Then she said she would like "at least 6 pair, maybe more". Challenge number 3. Good thing she didn't say she needed them by Monday. So, when I wasn't cleaning or washing I was making earrings. Today I talked to Jane and she asked if I used leverback wires on Hope's earrings because that's the only kind of ear wire she likes. I guess I missed that one. Have to go back on a couple and change them. Then she said, don't forget the navy blue ones. I missed that too. I bet that's the only color bead I don't have. I told Jane my fingers were going as fast as they can.

My friend Evelyn came over today and saw the coral ones and just drooled over them. She doesn't know it yet but I made her a pair tonight.

I "HOPE" to get at least 3 or 4 more pair done before I send them so she can take her pick.

Janie is having so much fun with all her earrings. Someone asked her today if she had earrings for every outfit. She answered "I believe I do". She's pretty good for 96. She said some of the other women come over to her table at breakfast to see her earrings.

Dear Booboo, I found 4 more of your rubber balls. Thanks for hiding them on me. I'm still looking for the other 20. You forgot your catnip when you left. Have fun at Rainbow Bridge. luvu

A TOTAL TANGLE

2011-06-08T06:50:00.000-07:00

A friend gave me a beading pattern for a single, "Flat Spiral" bracelet. I got the bracelet done and decided I didn't like the single, I wanted it doubled. How hard could that be? I watched someone at beading adding another row to theirs. 20 feet of Fireline later, I finally got the tangle and the two knots out and figured out how to keep the four threads I was working with from tangling again. Six tries didn't seem unreasonable at the time. I did have a seed bead explosion the second time I took it apart. I told my husband this was "The Bracelet From Hell" and he said "make 2 more and it will be the bracelet from Heaven". Mr. Positive??????

I was going to make it and give it to my sister but it fits me so I guess she's out of luck. :0( AWW. I guess I'll have to do number 2 and make it smaller.

This bracelet has a wonderful weighty feeling to it. I used size 6 Fireline, turquoise size 6 pearls, size 4 bicones and size 11 silver seed beads.

BEADED BEAD AND HERRINGBONE

I made this beaded bead and decided I wanted it on a herringbone rope. The size 11 seed beads I used were called gold metallic. I bought them at a local bead store. As I was working with them, the color was coming off on my fingers. It is now a multi-color of silver and gold but it's pretty.

I wonder how much the color will come off on clothes after it's worn a while.

I want to do beading and I want to do polymer clay so why does laundry, ironing, dusting and those nasty things keep creeping in my head? NEVER MIND, THEY'RE GONE.

Hey Booboo, I found 3 of your rubber balls yesterday. Thanks for the memories.

SHE WILL SPARKLE PLENTY

2011-06-02T19:10:00.000-07:00

My 96 year old friend Jane is the classiest woman I've ever met. She's been in a nursing home now for about a year. I've known her since I was 5. Her nephew and I were sweethearts in first grade and I won't even tell you how long ago that was.

Jane worked in a shoe store and a high end gift store for almost 60 years. I visited her in the gift store and she talked me into buying my first ever Gucci purse. I wore that purse for 3 years. I loved it. I digress again. Jane gets dressed to the nines everyday as I mentioned in a previous blog. I talked to her this morning and she said it's really exciting in the nursing home now because the nurses and the aides come in to see what earrings she is wearing every day. She was so excited with the last bunch I sent her. She said "I SPARKLE PLENTY". I asked if she needed any other color and she wouldn't tell me but as we finished our conversation she said she would love a pair of pearl and silver earrings. She is so funny. She said it was no hurry. She forgets she's 96. She really tickles me. When I have a problem and don't know what to do, I call Jane. She always leads me down the right path.

She was beautiful when she was young and is still very stately. These pearl earrings went out in the mail to her today.

White Pearls

Black Pearls

Green Pearls

The polymer clay swirl bead in the picture with the earrings was made with:

this cane. I sanded it starting at 320 grit and went up to 3000. It was buffed on a high speed buffer and for those of you who don't know much about buffing, it's not hard but you have to remember to shut your buffer off every couple minutes to let the buffer pads cool down. If you don't, the hot pads can distort your clay because of the heat. Been there, done that.

NEW CANE

I love making canes, they don't always come out the way I expected them to. I made this one yesterday.

Then I cut it in half and doubled it.

I made some cabochons with the cane. They have been sanded with 320 and 400 grit. I have a ways to go yet.

With the leftovers, I'm making beads to make a necklace and bracelet.

I taught this cane yesterday in a little polymer clay group that we have that meets at our beading club. I forgot to take pictures of everyone's pendants when they were done. They turned out beautiful. I really like this cane, I want to try it in different colors.

Have a claying good time. As Rose would say "When you're claying your Playing".

Goodnight my dear Booboo. Is there Catnip in Heaven?

BUTTONS AND BIRD HOUSES

2011-05-31T13:43:00.000-07:00

You are reading the blog of the woman who spent a week rolling beads in a bead roller and didn't own any molds or sculpting tools. Who was that crazy lady? I bet I have every sculpting tool (thanks to Christi Friesen) and 100 molds (thanks to Penny Jo Couch, I love her molds). I digress, I am now making buttons for a friend of mine. Her daughter makes beautiful quilted bags and puts my buttons on them. I've made some button molds from some rather interesting old buttons and using sculpting tools to make bird houses. You can see my bird houses in some previous blogs. Well, I just got an order for more buttons and I worked all weekend on them. I'm seeing buttons in my sleep.

These are something different for me. I used the cane I made and put it in one of Penny Jo Couch's cabochon molds. Did each one a little different. I made a button shank out of 18 gauge copper wire and put it in with liquid clay before I baked it. I really like these.

These were made with a mold that I made from an old button and Simple Silicone from JewelryEpoxy.com. It's a two part silicone and really easy to us. Their website has a video showing how to use it. These were made with gold clay and gold Pearlex Powders.

This is the same mold with different Pearlex Powders.

These are made from translucents with color added and the extruder. They almost look like Bakelite.

These were done with a button that I made a mold out of polymer clay with. I have to spray it with Armour All every time I make something in order for it to come out easy.

These are hearts that I textured and used Pearlex on and then sanded to make them look vintage.

These are a little chunkier heart buttons with Swarovski flat back crystals. I'll have to start making buttons to keep them on hand so I don't have to rush to make them when she needs them.

CORAL, CORAL, CORAL

A friend of mine went to Quartsite a while back and bought some strands of coral beads. We finally got together so she could tell me what she wanted done with them. Some of the beads were unusable which surprised me. They had black spots and severe cuts and gouges on them.

I went through them to pick out the good ones and had enough to make two necklaces, earrings and a bracelet. I added some silver to it. The necklaces can be worn together or separately.

It really looked good on her with the shirt she had on Friday night. See, it's been a busy weekend.

Dear Booboo, it's been three weeks since you went to Rainbow Bridge. I think of you everyday, you were the light of my life. Hope you have lots of bags to get into and lots of yarn to play with.

MEMORIAL DAY - A TIME TO REMEMBER

2011-05-30T14:37:00.000-07:00

I know today is the day we are suppose to remember our friends and family members who died in war, whatever war it was. I watched a show on TV last night from Washington about Memorial Day. It was so depressing, I cried the whole time. My husband was in the Army at Ft. Hood when Colin Powell was the Commander there. He has a lot of great stories about Ft. Hood and the snakes in Texas. He has a friend who only has half a head left from the injuries he received in Viet Nam. We lost about 25 of our classmates in Viet Nam. Some of those guys I went to grade school and high school with.

My dad was in the Navy during WWII, my step dad was in the Army during WWII ( he showed up later). My mother played on a professional ladies baseball team during that war. I was named for a professional lady baseball player who was a friend of my mom's. The only time I have ever had a bat in my hand, I accidentally let it go and it hit the catcher in the mouth and knocked out her two front teeth. I was never allowed to go near baseball equipment after that.

I worked for a major pharmaceutical company in the mid-west and I was responsible for all the Atropine syringes that went to Desert Storm to counter attack Agent Orange during the Gulf War. A lot of our guys from work who had just gotten out of college and were National Guard members had to go to the gulf and I wanted to make sure they all had their syringes. Those syringes were the top priority for almost two years. The stress of that project put everyone into craze mode. Sometimes we had to cover two jobs to make up for the guys that were gone. We all wore yellow ribbons and decorated our offices and the cafeteria with yellow ribbons. We all sang Tony Orlando's song "Tie A Yellow Ribbon". We lost a couple good guys.

I was sitting in my office on 9-11-2001 when my husband called and said "you won't believe what just happened". We all ran to a conference room to turn on the TV. No one could talk. I don't ever remember being that scared. I left early and drove home in shock. Life as it was once known, changed forever.

As I was watching that Memorial Day program last night, I was asking myself if there was something more I need to be doing for the vets coming back who have been injured, is there something I can do to help their families, is there a place I can go to volunteer to help? I used to knit wool scarves for the guys but I'm so allergic to the wool, I would get a migraine every time I picked it up. I decided, I'm going to start making scarves and afghans and take them down to Luke Air Force Base. I'm sure they will be able to find someone that needs them.

I had a thought too. I've seen thrift stores that help support animal shelters, homeless women and children, sending poor girls to college, to support church activities. Have you ever seen a thrift store that supports the vets and families of veterans? Let me know if you know of one so I can support them somehow, someway.

A lot of you that read my blog are too young to remember all these wars and the guys that never made it home. Now it's not just guys it's women too. I never thought I would see the day that a woman died in combat. I don't think when I was in my 20's or 30's that I would of had the nerve to do the things young women do now. I was never given the opportunity either but I still don't think I'm that kind of brave woman.

I know one thing for sure, my husband puts the American Flag out every day and if he forgets, I do it.

How about it people, let's get those flags out to remind us of how great things are in America, to remind us of the men and women who lost their lives defending our country and letting the world know what we stand for and what we won't stand for.

TIPS AND TRICKS - WHAT IS BURGUNDY - BYE BYE BIRDIE

2011-05-25T20:27:00.000-07:00

As you know, I belong to the Arizona Polymer Clay Guild. At every meeting someone does a demo. This past Saturday one of our ladies showed how to convert a caulking gun into an extruder if you have that little silver extruder. I was never able to use that. I was so happy when the new green Makins one came out. A couple weeks ago I was reading through some blogs and came across Knightwork's. She said she took some canes she had made and put them in the extruder to see what would happen. She put in a big bullseye and out came a perfect little bullseye. I tried it with some canes that I had made and sure enough, it worked. So Saturday I did a demo on reducing canes in the extruder. Being that I can't leave well enough alone, I played around and came up with something very interesting. When you make a cane and reduce it in the extruder, the outer color of the cane stretches and the outer color starts disappearing. So, I took some cane pieces, added an inch or half inch of a solid color on the front (the part closest to the disc opening). It worked great. The entire cane got covered with the clay. Here's some pictures.

This is the original flower cane that I made.

The middle cane was done in the extruder using the largest square disc. The cane on the right was done with the same disc but I put a half an inch of gold clay on the front of the cane. I could have used black but for demo purposes I wanted to use another color. As the end of the cane came out of the extruder I got something really awesome.

The cane did a twist at the end. If you take your cane and twist it slightly before you put it in the extruder, you will get the twist also. I did a spliced cane and ran it through the tiny circle disc and it came out perfect but really small which is great. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

WHAT IS BURGUNDY

This looks like burgundy. My 96 year old friend wanted silver and burgundy earrings.

I went to the bead store by me and 4 people gave me beads they said were burgundy and not one was close to what the other one gave me. I make earrings for my friend for every blouse she has. She's in a nursing home but she dresses to the nines (I never understood what that meant) every day. She also has a better memory than I do and has two martinis every night before dinner. I'm rambling. I bought some beads and made two pair of earrings but neither one looks burgundy to me. I'll send them to her and see what she says.

The top ones look black in the picture but they are a little brownish-red. I guess I'll be on the lookout for burgundy. I only know the kind that comes in the bottle.

BYE-BYE BIRDIE

I remember that movie. Ann Margaret was pretty good looking then, I guess we all have to get older.

I sold 5 of my baby bird houses today. YEAH. It's amazing how many people want to give you ideas about how to make things like that even after you've put 3 hours in each little bird house. Teeheehee OK, I'm listening. Where's that burgundy????

Good night Booboo. It's really quiet here without you. Big HUG.

BIRDS OF A FEATHER

2011-05-19T09:59:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in a post a few weeks ago, Cindy Lietz at http://www.beadsandbeading.com/blog/ did a tutorial on making bird house beads. A week later there was a nest across the street of baby wrens. Every morning there are two doves that wake me up at 5:30 (who needs a rooster)? Tuesday on the golf course there was a quail family, mom, dad and four little hair balls with feet all running all over the place.
I live in Arizona and right now every bird in the U.S. is visiting here (except most of the snowbirds have gone home). The snowbirds from the mid-west I call "snow-blowers". Not all of them think that's funny but it's ok for them to call me a Cheesehead since I originally came from Wisconsin. Is that fair???? NOT

Anyway, back to my bird house story ( I tend to wander or is it wonder). I had some little pieces of left over clay and a new leaf cane and made a couple of bird houses. Next thing I know I'm making more bird houses. Some ladies at beading saw them and wanted them so I have to make more. This is really off the beaten path for me. It's more like sculpting. I'm more of a "Roll A Bead" girl. The more I do, the more I want to do. Sort of sounds like my shopping problem with beads and clay. Anyway, here they are.

Those spotted feathers came from a little bird that was sitting in my window yelling at me. Pulled them right out of his back side. Just kidding, I bought those.

Click on picture to see them up close. Some have Swarovski flat back crystals in the door hole.

I think these would be great for the kids at Beads of Courage. I'll make a bunch and donate them.

TWEET TWEET

Miss you my beloved Booboo

HELP ME, I'M AN ADDICT

2011-05-14T20:05:00.000-07:00

How much clay and how many beads can one person have? We need to start an organization for people like me who can't stop buying polymer clay and beads. We can call it PBA (Polymer Clay and Beaders Annonymous). Oh no, that's taken (Professional Bowler's Association). Well, if you come up with a name let me know and we'll have the first meeting at my house.

Yesterday we took my friend Judy out for her birthday. We went to Tempe to one of Arizona's biggest beading stores first. I didn't need anything. My bag weighed 7 pounds when we left. Then we went to a huge art supply store. I didn't need anything. They had Premo clay. They had all the new colors for $2.09 for a 2 ounce bar and they had 1 pound bars for $10.99. I already have 420 bars of clay. Now I have 435. We went to lunch downtown Tempe at a place called House of Tricks. Awesome food but my GPS didn't tell me that yesterday was ASU's graduation in Tempe. Hope those kids find jobs. From there we went to a beading store in Peoria that was having a 50% off of everything sale because the road is going to be paved for a week and they knew business would be bad. I didn't need anything. Spent $56 but got out paying $28 because of the sale. Now I can't find room to put all this stuff. AM I THE ONLY ONE?

I did some clay work this week trying to get my mind off Booboo. I made this pendant and matching earrings. I wore it yesterday when we went out. It wasn't wired the way I wanted it to be but when I opened a package of coiled wire, the wire sprang out and ripped a slice in my thumb one inch long. Couldn't hold anything for 2 days.

It's a form of Mokume Gane and has Magic Glos on it. By the way, my cameras are acting funny again. I think they are going through MENopause. If you click on this you can see it better.

BEADED BEAD

In the August 2008 issue of Bead and Button there is a pattern in there for a beaded bead. It's actually right angle weave with two needles and is very simple. I made a bead and it's beautiful but it's a big honking thing. I used some size 11, gold seed beads on it and after handling it a couple times, the gold rubbed off. Can't remember where I got these. I've started a herringbone necklace to put it on and I'm using the same seed beads. The gold is coming off again.

I'll post a picture when I'm done. Cameras and I weren't getting along today.

TILA BEAD EARRINGS

I bought a ton of Tila Beads (two hole beads). I love making these earrings. I put 3 pair in my Arfire store at http://www.artfire.com/users/BLeeKreations. Since I over bought (:0) on those also, I'm selling the earrings very cheap. At least this keeps me out of the bar and off the streets.

My relatives don't want any more jewlery.

I wonder if we can take over AA and just call it BA and PCA. I know I'm not alone in this!!!!!!

Goodnight Booboo.

HE WAS A GOOD OLD BOY

2011-05-11T18:47:00.000-07:00

I want to thank everyone for all the wonderful messages that I got on the blog and on facebook about Booboo. I wasn't able to do this Monday or Tuesday but I think I'm finally coming around (NOT). I still look for him in the closet and by the shower. He followed me around 24/7 for 20 years. It was like having a 3 year old. My friends will tell you he was the loudest cat they ever heard and he talked all day long just like a 3 year old. The doctor said he was pretty sick and wouldn't get better without a lot of invasive procedures. I don't think Boo would have liked that. The doctor said I was doing the right thing even though it didn't feel like it.
Now I have to move on to all the good memories of him. He was born in a shelter in Kenosha, Wisconsin on Halloween 1991. I didn't want another yellow tiger cat but grandma went with me to the shelter, that was a mistake. She opened the door to his cage when she saw him and he jumped on her. His claws were in her coat so far we couldn't get them out. He licked her face so hard I thought she was going to lose her glasses. Since they were attached, I had to take them both home. Great decision now that I look back. Thanks grandma.

As you can, he was always in the middle of things. There's one of his sponge balls. He brought them to me and I threw them and he brought them and I threw them. I'm sure I'm going to find 20 of them anytime now.

When he was a baby he had ear mites. I asked my mom to take him to the vet to get his ears checked because I had to work. She wrapped him in a towel and put him in the car. When we saw her in the afternoon she had a big scratch going up her nose and her glasses were way off kilter. She said by the time she got to the vets he was sitting on her head and had a hold of her nose with his claws to hold on. She had to ask someone in the parking lot to get the vet to come out to the car to get the cat off her head and out of her hair. She got mad when we started laughing. I had to buy him a carry crate to take him to the vet from that time on. And he screamed.

I don't have any baby pictures of him on the computer. I'll have to go dig them out and scan them in. He was adorable when he was little.

Thanks for letting me bend your ear about this guy. He was a good old boy.

ANOTHER MANIC MONDAY WISH IT WAS SUNDAY

2011-05-09T11:09:00.000-07:00

This might be my last post for a little while. Booboo is very bad. I called the vet this morning to get an appointment and they don't want me in till 4 in the afternoon. I know what that means. The lady at the vets office has been so sweet I'm just amazed. If the receptionists in the people doctor offices were that nice it would be wonderful. If there are typos here it's because I'm having a hard time seeing through my tears. Sorry. This should be private but I've made so many wonderful friends through this blog and they were all concerned about Booboo. My blog is about animals and polymer clay and friends so I figured this would be a good release for me and my friends will be there for me.

I took this picture of him last night laying on my desk. He always liked holding my thumb while I worked on the computer with my mouse. I guess I've been pretty lucky to have had him around for 20 years.
So, say a little prayer for him today. I'm sure Annie and Angel and Grandma are waiting for him with some catnip.

BABY BIRD HOUSE BEADS

2011-05-07T12:06:00.000-07:00

I am an avid follower of Cindy Lietz at http://www.beadsandbeading.com/blog/. Every Friday Cindy puts up a new video showing a tutorial about polymer clay or something related. This past Monday she put out a free video about her tear drop blends and how to shift it. You can go to the link above if you want to see it. I'm not sure how long it will be there and how long it will be free.

Anyway, a week ago last Friday she did a tutorial about making bird house beads. I watched it and thought it was cute but it wasn't something I normally would get excited about. Well, my last two posts have been about the baby cactus wrens that were born in a nest right across the street from me. I've been checking on them twice a day since I found them. I think that nest inspired me to try Cindy's little bird houses. I made two of them and I can feel a bunch more in that muse in my head.

BEAD UNIQUE MAGAZINE

On the cover of the 7th Anniversary Issue of Bead Unique there was a picture of a beautiful polymer clay necklace.

My friend Rose decided she loved that necklace so much she had to have one. Check this out.

Isn't this gorgeous? She made four petals instead of two and she also made her own neck piece by doing Kumihimo. She does incredible Kumihimo ropes. Congratulations Rose, where's mine? LOL

SISTER'S EARRINGS

My sister is going to a wedding in Florida next week and needed earrings. I've been playing with the new Tila (two hole) beads. Made these for her. Haven't heard if she got them yet or not. At least she loved the pens I made for the wedding.

ON A SAD NOTE

My guy Boo isn't doing good. He's almost 20 now. We've been up all night (he was sick) and he's lost weight and isn't eating. He's going to the doctor on Monday since they aren't open today. We are going to spend the weekend snuggling. It's hard for me to write this because I've been crying all day. It hurts me to see him like this. I've had him since he was 3 weeks old and he's had me laughing for almost 20 years. He's been a good friend and my best pal but I think he's tired now.

TWEET TWEET DAY 2

2011-05-02T11:24:00.000-07:00

I was worried about the babies in the cactus because it has been very windy here. I just checked on them and the parents were there. They flew away when they saw me so I took the opportunity to take another picture. One of the little birds had a feather stuck on his beak.

They are wrens not Quail. The parents are very loud.

THE PENS ARE DONE! WHEW

The pens are done, individually wrapped and in the mail.

This is just part of them. I ran out of room on the refrigerator. The magnet will stick to the metal eye so it can be turned into a beaded ring if they don't want to put them on the refrigerator. Now to clean up all the beads and stuff.

SOMETHING FUNNY

I found this the other day and couldn't live without it.

It says "Husband and Cat missing - $100 reward for Cat". My husband laughed and then made a face and walked away. He knows he's worth more than $100. LOL

2011-05-01T12:04:00.000-07:00

There is just something special about May1st. At home in Wisconsin it can be 80 or 30 on May 1st. Here in Arizona it's a beautiful day. I know I just did a blog last night but this morning something beautiful happened and I wanted to share it. I heard a noise coming from across the street. My neighbors are both gone for the summer and I watch the house of one of them. Between the two neighbors there is a big cactus and look what I found in there:

There were 4 little mouths singing for food. Not sure what they are yet. My husband thinks they are cactus wrens. They might be baby quail. I'll keep updating with pictures.

HAPPY SPRING

THE LAST OF THE HEARTS AND A FEW USEFUL TIPS

2011-04-30T18:36:00.000-07:00

The hearts for the wedding are done. This last set was done with the new tiny flexible mold that I bought from Penni Jo Couch at bestflexiblemolds.com. I love her molds. The other ones I did in lots of colors with Pearlex and Perfect Pearls. These I did in just white and the color of the flowers and leaves. I wish I would have done them all in white but I'm not starting over.

Here are some of the pens. They have beads at the top with a magnet so it will stick to the refrigerator.

Click on the picture to see them closer.

Right now they just stick to each other. Now I have to put the rest of the hearts and pens together but I got an order for another frame and they need it right away for a gift.

USEFUL TIPS

I lived with my grandmother for 25 years. She died when she was 99.

Grandma started smoking when she was 50 and I knew she always liked beer but until we lived together I didn't know how much. She had a great sense of humor too.

GRANDMA'S TIP #1

She had a "friend" that would come over unannounced, at odd times and wouldn't leave. She would help herself to what ever was in the refrigerator and run her fingers over things checking for dust. One day grandma saw her car pull up and she told me to pull all the kitchen chairs into the dining room and to get the vacuum cleaner out and put in the middle of the living room floor and open the vinegar bottle and pour it into the toilet and leave the seat up. My grandma was very smart so I did what she told me to do. In the meantime, she got out all the buckets and put them on the floor in the hall leading to the kitchen. The doorbell rang and grandma let her friend in. Her friend looked around and made a sniffing noise. Then she said to grandma, "I guess I got you at a bad time, I'll come back some other time when you aren't busy". She left, grandma got herself a beer and a cigarette and sat in a chair and told me to put everything back the way it was. I did what she said.

If you want to get rid of unwanted guests, make believe you are in the middle of cleaning and get the vinegar or Pinesol out and put it in a bucket in the middle of the floor and put the vacuum cleaner by the chair they usually sit in. Have all these things handy at all times.

WEDDING HEARTS AND SISSY

2011-04-24T17:14:00.000-07:00

A while ago I mentioned that my nephew was getting married in September and my sister is having a bridal shower for his fiance. I told her I would make some shower favors thinking there were would be 15 or 20 people at the shower and then she told me there would be between 40 and 50 and she was having it at some restaurant near her house in Chicago. The first two words that came to my mind were "BIG MOUTH".

I had to decide what I wanted to do and I wanted something different and special. I love making pens and putting beads and magnets on them so they will stick to the refrigerator. I just finished the pens for the quild's swap so I just kept going. I've got the pens done.

So now I'm working on the tops. I decided to make hearts.

The front of the hearts have their initials on the top and on the back I stamped
"LOVE" 9-17-2011

I used a lot of Pearlex Powders and Penni Jo Couch's flexible molds. http://www.bestflexiblemolds.com/. I just ordered some more from her to use to make the next 40 molds for the hearts. I love her molds. I use them a lot when I make beads for the cancer stricken kids at Beads of Courage. I'm glad my family doesn't look at my blog because these are going to be a surprise for them. When I finish some I'll take pictures and post them. If you click on the picture you can see them up close.

MY FRIEND PK'S BIRTHDAY

Today is my friend's birthday. I made her a frame with her dog's name and picture in it.

This is Sissy. She let me put those curlers in her hair and take her picture. I put a little Yorkie button on the back along with a cat button. PK use to have a Yorkie by the name of Jose, he always tried to kiss my cat Booboo and Booboo would swing at him (never connected). Jose would put his head down and start crying and Booboo would just shake his head and walk away. He was a spoiled brat but was very cute. Sissy on the other hand is very hyper and very smart and loves kissing but not cats.

Hope you had a nice Easter. We are having oatmeal for dinner. We had our Easter dinner Friday night. When you are retired and away from family, holidays just seem to come and go. I usually get a bag of black jelly beans every year but I didn't this year. Must be the oatmeal thing!!!!!!!!!!!!!

POLYMER CAFE AND FINALLY DONE

2011-04-19T20:53:00.000-07:00

I got my June issue of Polymer Cafe in the mail today and I was sitting outside reading it waiting for my friend Judy and her husband to come and pick up a car by my house. I started reading the last page titled "The Musings of an Artistic Late Bloomer". As I started reading I had this feeling I had read this some where before but didn't know why. I looked up at the top of the page and there she was big as life "JUDY KELLY". Just then they drove up and I'm running across the street waving my magazine and yelling. I'm sure the neighbors thought I was nuts. Judy was in shock when she saw the article. She didn't know it was going to be in there. Anyway, for a kid who couldn't draw stick figures or do stained glass she sure has taken to polymer clay. I'm kind of proud because I sort of pushed her into it. We were hugging and whooping and then her husband said to me "see, you created a monster". It wasn't the first time and won't be the last. CONGRATULATIONS JUDY, you are in the big time girl.

A couple weeks ago Judy, Rose and I took a class on beading on spools. I sort of left mine sitting there for a while. Well, now I have a pinched nerve in my back so I couldn't go golfing today. I decided it was a good time to finish that necklace.

This is the best I could do for a picture. My computer got a virus and I had to change some programs. I tried to flip this but my Picasa doesn't want to transfer or work very well right now. I really like this necklace. My husband said I should sell it since I never go any where dressy enough to wear it. Wait till we go out for fish Friday night and I have on my good tee shirt that matches this necklace, he'll be surprised.

Going to ice my back and put all my beads away. At least I finished something today.

Hey Linda, thanks for your update on the gold prices. Glad I do polymer and not precious metals. Love all your information.

B-LEE KREATIONS - BONNIE'S KREATIVE KORNER

CANE SWAP AND MORE BUSTER ANTICS

JUST COULDN'T LEAVE IT ALONE

POLYMER CLAY CANES AND MISTER BUSTER

EARRINGS AND A SILLY CAT

MISTER BUSTER AND GRRRRRRRRR DOCTOR

STEAMPUNK PENDANTS AND A CURIOUS CAT

HAPPY NEW YEAR

AND THE WINNER IS...........................

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY TO NEW YEAR TO ME

Lorelei's Blog Give Away

Check out this blog, great give away.

http://lorelei1141.blogspot.com/

Dec 27, 2011

Lark Books Giveaway

TINA HOLDEN'S CHRISMAS GIVEAWAY

30,000 HITS GIVEAWAY

POLYMER CAFE SURPRISE FOR TWO

CHRISTMAS IN ARIZONA

POLYMER CLAY IN PARADISE

CAT IN THE HAT AND EARRING IN THE EAR

JUDY'S FACE PENDANT

VELVEETA CHEESE FUDGE

VELVEETA CHEESE FUDGE

VELVEETA CHEESE FUDGE

STROPPEL - MAGUIRE PENDANT

PLEASE DON'T LEAF ME

FACE CANES - FIRST PENDANT

BARBARA MAGUIRE FACE CANE CLASS

THREE IS A CHARM ------- I HOPE AND BARBARA MAGUIRE CLASS

11 - 11 -11 VETERANS DAY

WATER FOR THE STEAMPUNK ELEPHANTS

STROPPEL CANE NECKLACE

WELL BEHAVED WOMEN RARELY MAKE HISTORY

ANOTHER OBSESSION AND IT NEVER ENDS

HALLOWEEN CLOWN GIVE AWAY

CINDY CREATED A MONSTER

ELEVEN DAYS AND COUNTING - STILL NOT CHRISTMAS

TWELVE DAYS AND COUNTING - NO NOT CHRISTMAS

CALL 911, SOMEONE STOLE MY MUSE

WHAT A WONDERFUL SURPRISE

BASKET WEAVE WITH POLYMER CLAY

PEONY CANE - WHAT'S TAKING YOU SO LONG?

I'M SO EXCITED, I JUST CAN'T HIDE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HOME SWEET HOME

POLYMER - SAND AND BUFF, SAND AND BUFF, SAND AND BUFF

GOODBYE IRENE - HERE COMES THE NETTING AND JADE

BIRTHDAY SURPRISE

BEING AWARE OF YOUR SURROUNDINGS

WEDDNG'S GETTING CLOSER, NECKLACE IS GETTING LONGER

WHAT'S ON MY BEADING TABLE? ANOTHER ONE???????

BEAD CROCHET OR KUMIHIMO

WHERE ARE YOU PUTTING SUGAR?????????????????

POLYMER CLAY EARRINGS

CELEBRATING 200 AND OH MY IT'S RESIN

CLAY ON HOLD - WHY DO THEY CALL THEM EARRINGS?

READY FOR MARDI GRAS

CHRISTMAS IN JULY

WHO NEEDS A UV LAMP???????

A VERY LUCKY WEEK

THANK YOU BEADUCATION

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA - HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY

HOW HOT IS IS?

HOW NICE IS THAT?

EARRINGS ARE GONE - BACK TO CLAY -YIPPEE

EARRINGS, EARRINGS AND OH YES, MORE EARRINGS

LIZARD TAILS AND SWIRLY YARN

BIRD HOUSES, BOOKMARKS AND BEADS OF COURAGE

HOPE FOR THE EARRINGS AND EARRINGS FOR HOPE

A TOTAL TANGLE

SHE WILL SPARKLE PLENTY

BUTTONS AND BIRD HOUSES

MEMORIAL DAY - A TIME TO REMEMBER

TIPS AND TRICKS - WHAT IS BURGUNDY - BYE BYE BIRDIE

BIRDS OF A FEATHER

HELP ME, I'M AN ADDICT

HE WAS A GOOD OLD BOY

ANOTHER MANIC MONDAY WISH IT WAS SUNDAY

BABY BIRD HOUSE BEADS

TWEET TWEET DAY 2