SHALL I BEAD OR SHOULD I DO CLAY???????? HMMMMM

Yesterday I taught my friend Judy how to do Peyote Stitch.  She loves it.  I thought we would just practice a piece first BUT NO, she just wanted to jump right in.  I started her with the Bumps in the Road pattern and decided to do it with her so it would be easier for her to see.  Of course I couldn't let it sit there, I had to finish it.  This is the one I made, Judy's will be done soon and I'll post it.

In the meantime, I have all this new Premo clay calling my name.   The colors are incredible.  So, do I bead tonight or do I do clay or iron clothes?  I think I'll hide the ironing so that will be one less decision to make.

I bought some necklaces from a guy at a fair not too long ago.  They were all Chinese crystals.  He was selling them so cheap I had to buy a bunch.  Took them apart and put them on this bracelet.  I almost made a golf stroke counter out of these beads, glad I didn't.

The polymer beads were done with a Kaleidoscope Cane, all the spacer beads are the ones I bought and I can't even tell you how many I have.  Obsessive Compulsive when it comes to beads and clay.

Today my friend Judy and I went to Prescott and had a nice lunch.  I visited their snow and left it there.  We stopped at a little art shop that had wonderful things.  I have a bunch of these Colorbox Molding Mats but he had some I've never seen so those came home with me.

The top one is called Houndstooth Check and the bottom one is called Starry Swirls.  I'm going to have to build a room just for all my texture sheets and texture tools.

Another thing he carried in this store were these awesome clay shapers.  The black tipped one is huge and is a little harder than the gray tipped one.  He had every shape and every size.  I use my tiny ones all the time, I'm guessing these are going to be in the container marked "MY FAVORITE TOOLS" along with Christi Freisen's tools which I really love.  I put the golf ball there so you could see how big the shapers are not because I played golf at Torrey Pines.  I went there and bought two golf balls and a golf ball marker.  I'm not the Torrey Pines kind of golfer.  I'm the "oops, I think I hit another ball in the water" kind of golfer.  LOL

Back to work, found a 3 pound bag of beads in the back of the closet that I forgot I had.  Need to find a home for them.  I spilled about 2000 and some went in Booboo's bed so he's not a happy cat.

NEED MORE HANDS

Our craft fair is in March and I have to have all my stuff in by next Monday.  I need to make 35 wedding favors, at least 18 or 20 pens for the pen exchange in April, get some stuff done for Etsy and Artfire and here I sit watching NCIS.  HELP ME.

I finally finished this and it went out in the mail today.  My friend Debbie has three grand kids who are adorable and she doesn't know this is coming.  Hope she likes it.

NEW BOOK

I got Grant Diffendaffer's new book in the mail today.  It's called "Polymer Clay Beads".

The ones on the front cover are in 3-D.  The rest are awesome too and he has very good pictures and instructions on the inside.  I just got all my new Premo clay colors from Boston Clay Works.  I just need time to play.

15,000 GIVEAWAY WINNERS

This morning I wrote the names of everyone who left me a message on my blog about what they wanted for Valentines Day.  I put them in a bag and had "My Sweetheart" pick two names out of the bag.  The first name he picked was Rose and the second name he picked was Desert Rubble.


Rose, you are the winner of the first set of items:

Desert Rubble, this is yours:

  Please send me an email with your address and I will get them in the mail on Tuesday when the post office opens.

Thanks everyone.  I'll probably do this again at 20 or 25, 000.

POLYMER CAFE - DRAGONS AND FRAME

POLYMER CAFE

I'M SO EXCITED.

In the new issue of Polymer Cafe there is an article and pictures on page 42 about some cute little flower pots.  The pots were done by my good friend Judy Kelly.  I'm so happy for her and so proud of her.  She did a great job writing the article.  Judy's been doing clay for about 2 years now and she's an inspiration to me the way she puts things together like these little pots.

  She wasn't sure when it was going to be published so we were all surprised when it came out this month.  Now that the magazine is out I can put pictures of some of her little flower pots on my blog.

Click on the picture to enlarge it for details.  It was made with a Black and White flower cane and some scrap canes.  The lady bugs were a gift from Anita Brandon.

Judy wanted me to put this picture in with the mouse.

This is another one of Judy's tiny pots that she flattened the back on and added a pin so it could be used as a pendant.

This is another one that was turned into a pin and all the pots were made with canes and scrap clay.

Judy says she has a black thumb when it comes to live plants and she wanted something in her craft room window that she didn't have to water and fuss with and that's when the little pots appeared.

CONGRATULATIONS MY DEAR FRIEND.

Desert Rubble in Polymer Cafe

You should also notice there is an article in there about Lynn Reno more commonly known as Desert Rubble.  Lynn does beautiful work and is really deserving of this great article.  Check out Lynn's pieces on Artfire http://www.artfire.com/users/DesertRubble.

EVELYN'S DRAGON

As you know my friends and I took Christi Freisen classes in Tucson last week. Evelyn just finished her dragon. We are so proud of her too. She has Macular Degeneration and her eyesight is really bad so she struggles with detail. She decided she wanted scales on her dragon.

Isn't he cute?

ANOTHER FRAME

This is the latest frame I made for a friend to give as a birthday gift.  She has 3 dogs.  I don't put the glass or backing on to take a picture because it reflects back.  I love doing these but I hate painting them.  Getting more requests for frames, might get to be a full time job at this rate.

CONGRATULATIONS LYNN AND JUDY

VALENTINES DAY FOR ALL AGES - ELEPHANT NEEDS PEANUTS

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY

Last night my great nephew Brady and his mom went to a Valentine's Day Dance at the Children's Museum in downtown Tampa.  Brady got cornered by a little girl named Olive and a news photographer took this picture of them dancing.

Olive looks like she is trying to put her hand in Brady's armpit.  LOL  He likes cats and dogs and golf so I don't think his mom has to worry too much.

JUDY'S STEAMPUNK ELEPHANT

Since we took all those Christi Freisen classes down in Tucson, my friends and I have been collecting watch parts and gears and any fun stuff we can put in clay.  Judy came over today wearing this little guy.

She thinks his trunk is too fat from eating too many peanuts but I think he's adorable.  I forgot to ask if the screw in the front of his eyes was giving him a headache or holding his brains in.

Christi made us an elephant in 5 minutes.  We brought it home and baked it and it is now being put in a protective case.  I'll take a picture and post it when it's done.

PENDANT SWAP

I finally finished my 17 pieces for our clay guilds pendant swap.  I was going to wire wrap all of them but some have lady bugs and I didn't want to cover the lady bug so I beaded a bail in those.  I'll post pictures of all the ones I get back next Saturday.

You can see them better if you click on the picture.  I wish I would of had my new Premo pearl clays and the new Pearlex powders that I bought down in Tucson.  The colors are gorgeous.  Christi had them and I couldn't resist but we did put an order in with Boston Craft Works for more of the new clay.  The new pearls are really pretty and I love the granite colors.  I actually love all of them.

15,000 GIVE AWAY

Don't forget to go to my previous blog post and leave me a message so you can win one of two prizes that are shown there.

For Valentine's Day I got a beautiful card, Twizzler Licorice and some money to take my sweetheart to the casino.  He buys beautiful cards, awwwwwwwwww.

Hope you had a chocolatey Day.