My beads are going to SPACE!!!

I am so thrilled and honored to have been chosen among one of the artists who's work was chosen to join the crew of the Space Shuttle Endeavor on their journey into space on April 17, 2011!!! I couldn't be more excited to have a piece of me travel into space! I'm not sure yet which bead was chosen, but I have a feeling it was one I have a special attatchment to (yes, I get attatched to some and keep them too look at). It will be extra special for me if that is the bead to go into space :)

I feel extremely lucky to have been chosen for this honor. I have seen some of the other beads submitted and I was kind of surprised to see my name along side theirs on that list. My beads were a different style than a lot that I saw - mine were galxies in glass. I've been making these beads for years and I just have so much fun making them and experimenting with different materials to create what I believe deep space looks like. They were inspired by my husband and his love for space - I thought if I made something like that, he would FINALLY wear a bead of mine. It worked ;)

I know I have a picture of the bead somewhere, but since it was an older bead in my collection, I have a few backup discs to go through to find it. When I do, I will share it. People want to see, of course.

This was a contest/fundraiser for a wonderful charity, Beads of Courage (BOC). It is a program in which pediatric cancer patients create necklaces with beads - each one symbolizing a different procedure they have had to endure on their journey fighting cancer. Some of these brave kids have multiple, very long necklaces -- their badges of courage. I'll include links so you can learn about this wonderful charity and how to donate if you would like; either monetarily or in beads. BOC has now expanded to 15,000 patients in 91 hospitals nationwide.
www.beadsofcourage.org
Check out the CBS morning show segment they did on it - on the site!

Anyways, I'll post the pic when I find it, but for now..... I'm a SPACE CADET!!! heheheee

Something fun ...

I bought a box of rectangular ingets at a garage sale for $1. I must have about 50 of them! I figured I should start putting glass on them, so here's the first one I've made. They're not easy as I can't hold the inget with my hands, and I'm trying to put a round bead on a rectangle, while turning it and holding it with vice grips. A lot of work to go through for a bead on it...lol. I'll post more as I explore what I can make with these.

Katie Rockin' out in the New Year

Katie Rockin' her Jackie O' glasses

Been awhile - lots going on.....

EXCEPT TORCHING - and I miss it SOOOO MUCH!!! The big reason I'm not torching right now is that I'm pregnant with #2. I know a lot of people do it, but with my crappy ventilation system and other possible health risks, I've decided to take a hiatus for awhile. I guess it'll be like starting all over this spring once the baby is born.
I'm due at the end of March, beginning of April. I've had 3 doctors figure out 3 or 4 dates for me, so I'm not putting anything on any date. I'm early in month #4 and starting to show already - things are moving along pretty fast. At least I'm out of the first trimester so I don't feel like being sick every second so that's good.
I keep torturing myself looking at everyone else's posted beads and galleries - maybe I should stop doing that so I don't feel so bad that I can't fire up the torch. I won't even go into my studio because it depresses me. I was having so much fun with marbles

A new adventure at my house tonight!

In the other room as I type, there are 2 little girls - one 6 (mine) and one 8 (my BIL's girlfriend's daughter). They are two hyper peas in a pod and spending the night together tonight. This is my daughter's first sleepover. It's nearly 10:30 and their energy level is still through the roof and there are squeals and giggles piercing the air which ring through my very small house.
It's very cute, but with two high energy kids, I'm wondering if I am EVER going to get them to bed! We rented 2 movies and they're on number two right now. Hopefully this one will settle them down a little and get them a bit sleepy, but the both of them are determined to "...stay up past midnight!". I'll bet they have the energy to do it too!
Tomorrow should be intersting for everyone.....lol. Crabby girls all day!
It's so strange to watch your children grow up and experience the same things you did. The "super funness" of the sleepover at a friend's house and doing fun things that you normally don't get to do like stay up late and eat popcorn at 10 at night. Giggling yourself to sleep after bedtime (because you NEVER go to sleep when it's bedtime - that's flashlight time!). I think we did a pretty good job making it fun. We went out to dinner, got movies, popped popcorn (they even got some late Skittles!), and did airbrush tattoos - which they did all on their own with my daughter's kit.
I don't know why I decided to blog this.... it's a big first for us and the beginning of many many more of these, I'm sure.
It's just fun to remember some of those really fun things that made up your childhood!! :)

MY WATER FEATURE IS FINALLY IN!!!!

(pics: 1-design trial 2:Epoxyed rocks for edging, 3: reservoir is in, 4: Finished product!)

Well, it's FINALLY in!! After literally about 2 years of planning for and acquiring things for it, my water feature is finally in! I wanted a bubbling pot of some kind - something quiet and simple sounding. I love watching waterfalls and all, but for my garden I wanted that bubbling sound. I searched for 2 years until I found the perfect pot. I loved the design of them - ceramic with a gorgeous blue-ish, teal glaze and they were 50% off - how much more perfect could it be? I didn't even know it was the perfect one for this project until I was staring at it one day wondering how in the heck I was going to fill this really tall, kinda unsturdy pot up with soil - it's 3.5 feet tall - that's a lot of money in dirt! Then the idea hit me - fill it up with water instead! My brother and I messed around with some ideas about the style of the feature, but we never came up with anything solid. I had a design finally settle into my head that I really liked and decided that was the way to go - and it was the easiest way to put it together as well - what a bonus!

I bought a shallow barrel liner & set the pot upside down in the tub (shimmed up with some leftover broken stepping stones to set it straight and allow for water flow to the pump). We added a long length of 1/2" pvc pipe onto the output valve of the pump and threaded it right up through the already provided drainage hole at the bottom of the pot. To cover that up, I 2 part epoxied a boundary layer of stones around the outside of the base. These were taller cobblestones that would provide a "pen" to just lay and stack the other rocks inside of. I built up a small pyramid like base of rocks around the exposed PVC (which I'm planning to sheath with copper just for looks). I plan to add some of my marbles to this pile as I make them for the feature. I will probably end up replacing most of those rocks with glass pieces slowly. Who knows. Either way, I love how it turned out.

Hubby is running underground electricity to it tomorrow, so to test it out, we just have an ugly orange extention cord going to it.

I went outside after my daughter went to bed to listen to it and take some of the pictures - it sounds SO wonderfully soothing at night when everything is quiet. It truly now is a refuge and is already my new favorite part of my garden.

Thanks for coming and checking it out!!

I'm just THRILLED!!!

Well, I'm an idiot.....

Yesterday, I began my grand plans for adding a water feature into the back shade garden of my house. The beginning of this plan included removing a spindly old lilac bush that has resided in the corner of my yard since before we moved here. It was placed there by someone who had no idea of what kind of light a lilac bush needs, so it grew tall and woody - spindly with more branches than leaves. My brother and I decided that it was time to get rid of it.
So, after a few errands out (one of which I bought a new anvil pruner to help with my task), I headed out to the back garden to bring this poor thing down.
As I'm happily chopping away at the undergrowth, I grabbed a branch and proceeded to cut at a 45 degree angle. Well, I didn't pay much attention to the fact that my hand was in the cutting path and I sliced the fatty part of my palm right open with my brand new, extra sharp pruners.
So we all piled into the car and took me over to the hospital for a fix up. Which consisted only of super gluing my cut back together. It hasn't held together too well and it's still swollen and very tender which meant I couldn't torch today, but better things came of it anyway.
Hubby finished digging out the lilac and put in my water feature!!!! I"M SO THRILLED!!!! It turned out just how I wanted it to!! Now I have the center feature for my Zen garden and I can start to work around that. The corner already looks so different and I can't wait to plant my hostas and ferns and moss around to complete the whole thing!
I have pictures that I still have to edit, but will post a short blog about it later tonight.
Right now, gotta put the little one to bed....
back soon!

Well, well.....I finally get back on here!

I think I posted here last fall and that was the last time I was able to access this account. Things have changed on here a bit now and I was thrilled to get back to this blog!

I've had some fun things happen this month for me and am really exited to share them with all of ya.... I know I won't have time to write everything I want to due to the fact that I have to leave for my daughter's soccer game in about 20 minutes, but I'll write a small overview and expand on it later I guess.

May is an insane month for my family. It has been for a long time and I dread it and love it all at the same time. My mother, husband, and daughter have birthdays within a week of each other, there's Mother's Day and usually 2 parties for my daugther (the family one and the friend one if her big day doesn't land on a weekend).

We're through all of that now except for a family get-together this Wednesday to have her party for her real birthday - THANK GOD! Now I don't feel like I'm running around with my head cut off. We are just doing a small family out to dinner thing, so that's easy.

I also am working outside of the home again! I'm really happy about that. There's a place down the street from me that I worked at about 9 years ago and quit because I was stupid. I had my daughter, and a few years after that, they started asking me to come in during holidays and while people were on vacation to help out - and then they asked me back this spring when a valuable employee got a great job offer and couldn't pass it up. It's this great place called the "Miner's Den". They started out decades ago as a rock shop and branched into fine jewelry. Over many years, they've added a bead room and many other jewelry lines to 3 large rooms of the store. It's a family owned business and they treat you like family even if you're not. I really love the environment and I get to get out a few times a week and talk with adults and create stuff for the store and get paid for it! That's a big change for me who's been literally stuck in my house for my beadmaking and motherhood for 6 years now. I welcome the change and the fact that they are all very happy I decided to come back to work for them.

Also, this weekend, I was fortunate enough to have my bud, JC Herrell come to stay with me for 3 days while she taught classes only a few miles from my house. It was so fun having her here! If you're not familiar with her work, be sure to click on her name to check out her website. She makes the most amazing beads - and they're HUGE!! I'm fortunate to have quite a large collection of her work that I get to admire every day. She was a wonderful guest and took my 6 year old's affections with great stride as sometimes she can be a bit overbearing trying to show a guest everything she can and telling every story she can remember. She also thinks that JC is "So COOL!"(since she's met her once before), so she was all over her most of the time. Thanks for humoring her, JC :) She's still talking about you and wanted me to write "Thank YOu for the birthday present!!!. Anytime you're around here, you're more than welcome here.

I'll be sure to post a picture of the bead I was gifted from her this time that I saw her. One of her new rainbow beads - so gorgeous!!! And I must point out - a whole spectrum on one bead! ;)

Oh, gotta run, but I have to write about my hubby, daughter, and Ben (the boy in her class who has a HUGE crush on her.) They went out to the movies and there's a heck of a story that I have to post about next blog........ I about died when I heard the story. SHE"S NOT READY FOR THIS!!!!!

Here's some pictures of recent work of mine.
Just something to tide you all over until I get the other pics up on my previous blog - cuz I know you all can't get enough of me, right??? lol
LE'ers have already seen all of these, but TS! :)

WOW!! It let me back in!

I've been locked out of my blog for a couple of months. I tried every password I knew and couldn't get in!! It's nice to be back.

So.... well, my recovery has been going slowly and very painfully. I've been plauged with mysterious pains in my shin that have been moving around on me. I start Physical Therapy next week, so maybe with some sort of exercise, things will move quicker and maybe it will help with the pain. (But I'm thinking that it'll just make it worse - dreading it actually)

Anyway, enough with that - seems all I do is complain about that....
I had my birthday a few days back - UGH. I did resolve to try and do one thing new each day for the next 33 days (my new age :P). I've done okay so far! The eve of my birthday, I brought in my birthday on the torch making star murrini. I've never torched on my birthday OR made ANY murrini before. (Well, I tried to make a star before, but it was a pathetic attempt with only 4 points. This time I did a 5 pointed star and, despite my doubts, it came out almost perfectly and I was just thrilled!
For the next couple of hours or so, I made some large, egg shaped "night sky" beads with silver, a moon, and my star murrini. I like them, but my idea where they should go from here has changed and I can't wait to get back to the torch and experiment more.
Also, my best friend, Sheila Morley inspired me with the butterfly murrini she made in a recent Loren Stump class. It's GORGEOUS! A picture of it is to the right. I'm sure she won't mind me posting the picture since she complains her camera doesn't photograph right. Hope I did it justice. I am working on some SUPER beginner murrini things. It'll be interesting how this comes out - probably very laughable stuff :)
My husband bought me the "Creation Station" for my birthday and I am eagerly awaiting its arrival. I also got a nice sum of money to spend on glass and supplies from my father and a Caribou coffee card from my brother so I can stay up all night playing with my new glass and tools!! LOL.
My daughter was over the moon about my birthday. It's so adorable when they're little and still think your birthday is just as big a deal as their own. I was the "Queen for today"! She was so sweet. She bought me a card with coupons that she couldn't WAIT for me to chash in and she even made her own wrapping paper for my present with a picture of she and I holding hands in a field of flowers. Makes your heart melt, I'll tell ya.
She was supposed to have her first Kindergarten field trip today, but (of course) today was horribly stormy (the ONLY bad day out of the whole week, mind you), and while they left to go on the trip, they turned around less than halfway there because it was lightning. I don't blame them, it just sucks that all the kids were so excited to go to the orchard and they got jipped. Oh well, next time.
Well, have to be on my way to go and pick her up so I'll post the pictures when I get home. Sorry to be in such a rush.....