Cheesy bead set names . . .

I know the names come across a bit cheesy at times. If I could get by with it I would name them "Black and Ginger" beads or "Pink and Gray" beads. I suppose that would not be as much fun though. . .

I named this set "Egyptian Divinity" as a result of the influence that inspired the design. As a former muralist, I have done several Egyptian Tomb paintings. One of my favorites was of King Ramses tomb and it featured a life size depiction of "Isis". Her collar was turquoise, jade, gold and ivory and I thought it was just beautiful. I had always been intrigued by the headdresses, collars and jewelry worn by the Egyptian Deities as expressed in the tomb paintings. Anyway, that's a little info on the inspiration for this set of beads as well as a pretty good excuse for the cheesy name.

Guess I'd better go hit the torch. . . See ya again soon!!

Fairytales, Beads and Princesses

My inspiration comes mostly from memories of being a kid. Just like many before me, and after me, I aspired to be a princess when I grew up. I drew little pictures of princesses. . .They almost always had blond hair that fell around their feet and tall cone shaped Renaissance style hats with long flowing strings of silk that trailed behind her, gracefully blowing in the wind as she walked across the ballroom floor. (Don't know where the wind came from. I mean, she was in a ballroom during the Renaissance period and I am pretty sure that ventilation fans didn't exist in those days.)

The princess almost always had one single tear that fell from her eye, like Demi Moore in "Ghost". When asked by others as to why this single tear existed in the pictures, I always failed to offer a reason. I wasn't being stubborn, I quite simply did NOT know the answer.

Perhaps even as a child, I knew that with nobility came loneliness and sadness. . . A longing for something that their hearts were missing.

Living in a world where her dining room table is as long as a football field, she will never know what it's like to be arm's distance from the prince as he gazes into her eyes, holding her chin in his hand as he lovingly feeds her a chocolate dipped strawberry by candle light. She will never know what it's like to run barefoot through dew misted grass, or jump in mud puddles as the wet soil squishes up between her dainty little toes. Sadly, I am quite sure she'll never know what it's like to have several children pulling at her skirts as she kneads bread in her tiny kitchen on a warm Spring afternoon.

As a child, I envied her beautiful attire, perfectly groomed hair and sparkling jewelry. As an adult, I have decided to pay homage to her by making some beads that are well suited to be worn by her grace. . .

Ebay listings & errors in grammer.. .

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Dang.
Normally, I catch them before I they have bids. Which is cool because I can still correct them. The "Her Grace" auction was written as follows. . .
"Graceful and elegant in their design, this set of 13 fine lampwork beads offers a soft color pallet of minty copper green, tawny tones of sandstone and sparkling dichroic and goldstone detail"
I didn't notice my error until after I had bids so now I am stuck with my bad use of grammar and the embarrassment that comes along with it. Since I can't live with myself now, I'm never going to sell my beads on ebay again. I am going to start selling Amway instead. I think their stuff has prewritten descriptions. (I'm KIDDING!!!)

Speaking of Amway, do they actually sell stuff or do they just hassle every unsuspecting person that they come into contact with? I heard that they DO sell stuff but of all of the times I've been hassled by one of their people it has NEVER EVER been to get me to buy some of the stuff that they are supposedly selling. It's more so been about going to some lame meeting with money in hand, followed by twenty phone calls asking why I didn't show up. When I tell them that I didn't show up because I didn't recall committing myself to be there, they never fail to tell me what a GREAT opportunity I am missing out on.

I haven't been hassled by the Amway people in a long time but the memories are ever so sweet. lol

Getting back into the swing of things

A victim of my own procrastination, I have worked myself to death trying to get ready for Taste of Carolina AND keep things going on Ebay. I knew that I was going to do TOC since last fall, but I waited till the last minute to get things ready. I think I was practically in a coma on Sunday, thanks to the all of the wine I overindulged at Saturday's festival.

It was fun though. We had a blast. I have to admit that I felt a little weird in the midst of so many people. I think that being such a reclusive person over that past year has made me a bit anxious in large crowds. Honestly, I don't know if it's really the crowd that makes me nervous or if it's just me but I tend to think it's the latter. I don't maintain myself the way I used to. Obviously, sitting at the torch for 8-12 hours a day is NOT good exercise and the flame doesn't exactly give you a pretty golden tan. lol

So, that's my new personal focus. I want to keep working hard, but I need to get back to being me. I need to find the time EVERY SINGLE DAY without excuse, to get on my elliptical for at least 20 minutes. I also need to stick to this diet. I have 15 lbs to shed. I can't blame that on the torch, I've packed on about 5 lbs per year for the past three years since I stopped being obsessive over my weight. I think I'll stay away from the tanning beds though. Besides, a golden tan will only enhance the chroma of the burn marks on my hands and arms.

You know what? I miss painting too and I miss gardening. As a newbie, lampworking and jewelry making on a full time basis means working round the clock. Last year flew by for me like no other year before it. That may be because I love what I do with such a passion. Like they say, "If you love what you do for a living, you'll never "work" a day in your life." Well, I DO love my job. I love melting glass and I love crafting things out of the glass that I make. It gives me a level of satisfaction that I never imaged possible with any other career or profession. Having a consistent gateway in which my creativity can flow has even opened up a spiritual conduit that allows me to see things in a different perspective today than I could have a year or two ago. Sounds strange, I know but it's none the less true.

I want to thank all of you that come here to read as I ramble and I want to thank those of you that have supported me as an artist. You guys keep me going and without you, I'd have no reason to want to push my artistic ability to the next level. So . . .Thank you all for your kind emails and encouragement because it means the world to me. Your words lift my spirits on even the grayest of days.

Most of all, I want to thank my husband. He is the absolute foundation of my happiness. He is my identical soul, and I am his. I shudder to think of my life without him, so I won't even go there. Instead, I'll just be thankful that somehow by the grace of fate, our 3,000 mile long path crossed and it was there that we found each other.

Taste of Carolina - Here's some stuff that I'll be bringing!

Prayers for the Hokies

I was raised by Hokie fans and raised to love and respect this school. My heart and prayers go out to all of the family that lost loved ones yesterday as well as those who witnessed the events that took place.
My cousin Tyler is a 3rd year student at VT. He plays in the band. Last night I was glad to hear that he was fine. He showed up at school around 9:30 to locked doors and he was told to go home.

Motive still unknown. . . I can't imagine for the life of me what would trigger some one's mind to indulge mass murder. Where was the line in this guys head? You know what I mean, the line that most of us KNOW not to cross. Did he contemplate the line at all, or was it just absent altogether? No one will ever really know because the coward took his own life. Actually, now that I think about it, the latter statement tells me that he did see a line and he willing crossed it leaving many parents behind to morn the loss of their loved ones. He blew his own brains so that he would not have to be accountable for his actions. What a psychopath?

The press is having a field day. As I sat watching things unfold yesterday, I wondered how long it would be before they started looking for someone to blame. They were absolutely relentless in their lines of questioning to the students that witnessed the murders. It made me sick. Why would ask a question like, "Now, how has this impacted how you free right now? Do you think that the school was slow in letting you know that a killer was on the loose?" Now, while they may have a point about the timeline in letting these kids know about the murders, they could have at least given it a day or two before they started blaming the school. Some of these reporters remind me of opportunistic ambulance chasers. . . Always looking to make a buck by cracking a big story, checking their empathy at the door.

Air Raid Sirens!!!!

ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I live in a TINY community on the outskirts of a TINY town. The firehouse is a couple of miles from here. They use the air raid siren as means of letting all of the volunteers know to come to the firehouse for drills and fire calls. I hear this very loud siren sometimes three and four times each day.

Honestly, it doesn't bug me so much. . . My frustration is more focused on what it does to my dogs. They go NUTS every time the siren goes off. My very dominant male yorkie (Willie), especially. He goes into domestic violence mode and starts looking for my female (Tori) so that he can attack her, as though he thinks SHE is the one that sounded the ear ringing alarm.

So, this morning, here I sit . . .Doing my paperwork and eating my breakfast when the siren starts. Willie pops around the corner looking for Tori. I didn't know where she was so I quickly ran after him and scooped him up in my arms before he could open a six pack of whoop ass on her.

Now as if this wasn't a crazy enough situation as it were, she comes running out from under the bed and makes a b-line to the back door. She began to howl and it was the funniest thing I had ever heard in my life. I guess Willie doesn't like the way she "sings" so launching an attack on her when the siren goes off is the only way that he can spare himself of her terrible performance. LOL