CHOCOLATE WHAT CHOCOLATE

I AM A CHOCOHOLIC AND ALL MY FRIENDS KNOW IT.

My friend Evelyn bought me this shirt the other day and said "It's Perfect".  Yes it is.  I have a cat who loves to eat and I love chocolate and here's the perfect shirt.

SPEAKING OF CAT

I got my new camera last week and I absolutely love it.  When I was trying to learn how to use it I told Booboo he needed to pose for me so I could take his picture.  He walked over, looked up and smiled until I snapped the picture but at least he still sat there.

Now you know why I get all these cat gifts.

Did you notice the writing on the pictures?  My friend Lupe told me about Picasa which is a free download from google that you can use to fix your pictures.  You can crop, add light, write on them, put a watermark on them and do all kinds of fun stuff.  I love it.  Thank's Lupe.  Now I can quit moaning about my camera and pictures.

NDEBELE (HERRINGBONE) STITCH

I love doing Ndebele ropes to go with my polymer clay focal beads.  I normally do a 4 bead rope which goes pretty fast.  I've done them with Delica beads and size 11 seed beads.  My favorite herringbone is the twisted herringbone.  I found a swirly lentil bead that I had done with some left over clay and wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it.  Last night I finished it and today put the toggle on it.  I love these toggles.  If they accidentally slide to the front, it doesn't matter because they are so decorative.  I'm thinking about giving this away on my blog but haven't decided yet.  Let me know if you would like this.

I showed it to my husband and he said I should have put some copper or brown beads in it too so it would match the pendant.  He's the guy who can't match shirt and pants most days.  Guess I better check with him next time to make sure the colors are good.  LOL.

That's it for today folks.  I'm off to beading club and then coming home to do clay.  Next week my clay guild is going up to Prescott, AZ for 4 days to do clay.  We are staying at a camp that is suppose to have wonderful food and CHOCOLATE.  Sounds like another 5 pounds to me but at least I'll learn a lot of new things, get to laugh for 4 days and spend time with a lot of wonderfully talented people.

WE CAN DO IT - SOME GOOD, SOME BAD BUT IT KEEPS ME OUT OF THE BAR

Was walking through Michael's the other day and saw some Lisa Pavelka water slide transfers.  They looked interesting so I bought a couple packs.  The first one I put on a bead and put translucent clay over it thinking I could do a porcelain bead like in the Debbie Anderson class I took.  Well, those transfers don't bend and I think my trnaslucent was too thick.  So I tried again and here they are:

Actually this picture is of me a couple years ago when my hair was still red.  LOL

I used Magic Glos on this one and I'm getting to the bottom of bottle.  I didn't see the bubbles until I took the picture.  I found that with the Magic Glos, if you run a flame over it, the bubbles will disappear just like when you do that to UV Resin.  The transfer is really pretty but it's made of a plastic and needs to be handled gently once the back comes off.  The bubbles are really tiny and you don't see them that well in person.  The camera really makes those things stand out.  The transfer has to be flattened because of the water on it, it tends to make it move around and get wrinkled.  I'm going to try to do a couple more on baked clay and see if that works better.

This one which I love because of the picture and the saying also has a small bubble on the left in the clay that I didn't see.  It doesn't show up as much when looking at it in person.  I used Perfect Pearls on the sides of the picture and poked a hole in the side and did a little wire wrapping.  It has flaws but so do I so we fit together well.  I believe this picture is from WWII and I was born right after that so I know "WE CAN DO IT".

 

This cute little guy is a new stamp I found.  You know I love cats.  He will probably end up being a pin for my friend who has a cat that looks like him.

This cat has Magic Glos on him also.  Right now it's 110 here in Arizona and running out in the sun might be what's causing the bubbles in my pieces.  I have to put sun screen on just to go get the mail.  I love getting in the car with leather seats after it's been sitting outside for awhile.  I try to do it a couple times a day with shorts on because I figure it burns the cellulite off my thighs. 

My friend always says "IT'S A 100 AND STUPID" anytime it goes over 100.  My glos dries before I get it to the table outside.  Had two quail looking in our patio door with a sign asking for cold beer.

Today I made a black and white flower cane.  It's actually very pretty.  My camera keeps turning things pink, might be time for a new camera.  This cane was made with white, pearl and black Premo and the outside is Fimo translucent.  I didn't wait for it to rest before I cut it.  Don't have patience to do that.  It's so hot in my studio when the lights are on, I'm surprised the canes don't cook while I'm making them.

A few weeks ago at our clay guild meeting we had a demo on doing the Christi Freisen Peppermint Twist pendant.  Since that time all my friends have done 8 or 9 and I only did one.  We were suppose to use Swarovski Rivolis but since I have 800 pices of that flat glass, I decided to use that for my test piece.  I thought it was too big but my friends didn't, so, I made a Herringbone necklace for it with Delica seed beads.  Since I made this I found out that BIG is in this year as far as jewelry.  Wish they meant butts.

Tomorrow my friend Lupe www.miramecreations.blogspot.com/ and I are going to take a cabachon beading class.  I have quite a few books and tried a little one so I'm self taught but I like taking classes and this lady we are taking the class from does beautiful work and I think she has some tricks for making it easier to start.  I'll blog with a picture when I finish it.  I'm still working on my second crocheted necklace and it's turning out good, but I'm still a little slow.  Great thing to do if you can't sleep at night or want to listen to an audio book.

Gotta go, the quail are at the door again because we are the only ones in our neighborhood that haven't left for somewhere cool.  Yesterday it was coyotes at the door asking for frozen Margharitas.