I'm Home!!!

Still no pictures... and yes the sun is trying to shine.. but I'm not sure where all the things that I made are now... my luggage has been unpacked in piles all over the house... they started out as sorted piles .....

Highlights of the trip... the customer service counter staff at Delta... Surly & totally unhelpful in Bangor going to Atlanta... Leaving Atlanta, upgrade from Surly to Rude and Nasty! I got told off for not getting my boarding pass from the kiosk... Kiosk wouldn't give it to me as I was booked on two different airlines... then she wanted to charge me $150 for my suitcase because it weighed 51 pounds... Since I was flying internationally I could have had a second piece of luggage for free... Thumbs DOWN to DELTA's check in staff!!!!

However you do get free Ginger Biscotties on the plane....

The third week at WH we were surrounded by Tornadoes... none came really close but it was fun watching the sky... don't think they are in drought conditions any more either after all the rain they got that week!

All my flights coming home left on time and got in early!!!!!

Mom now seems to be recovering quite well from her broken hip... I detoured home from Atlanta via Edmonton for Mother's Day. She uses a walker with huge wheels when she's outside walking and her companion practically has to jog to keep up .... The back alley behind the house is a real mess so not terribly walker friendly.... I had two nice days weather wise there before the snow started floating past the windows.... But it's even colder there now!

From Edmonton I went to Toronto.. to visit G's youngest son.. we slept on the living room furniture I got the love seat... G complained about the couch the first morning... I suggested he could have the love seat I would take the full size couch... no more complaints! Weather there got cold after the first day too! Wanted to pick up some glass while I was there... clear & white.... Nortel didn't have any CLEAR!!!! SO to drown my sorrows got about 10 pounds of other new colours.....

Will have to spend my $50 gift certificate that I got from Artistry in Glass on clear glass .. how boring!

Left Sunday to drive home... Martha G's GPS sent us on a new route through Vermount, New Hampshire and Maine.... Very pretty... until we got to the border line up in Calais ME... 103 minutes after we joined the line we were free in Canada!

Got home very late Monday night.... spent yesterday removing weeds from the front gardens, swatting black flies, doing laundry, and buying groceries and plants on the mainland!

What did I miss?

I won again, well actually I came second...

Yes I'm afraid this blog is once again about me and how wonderful I am! Artistry in Glass has a glass bead competition (same one I won the rods in three months ago) every three months. I got 2nd place in the Advanced category ... (I don't know where I belong...) with my Jellyfish bead.. I was beaten by a sea horse, done by on online friend Laurie Ament, from Little Rock, Arkansas ,Here's a link to her etsy store Isinglass Design The gold Sea horse in the picture is not the one she entered in the competition... (I couldn't find a picture of it to 'borrow' for this blog!) What I find so impressive with her work is she does everything on a hot head... I'm sure you have all heard my opinion on those.. I think I can make a 'smoked' spacer in 30 minutes!)

More on the blowing my own horn theme!

Yes there is another interview ... You can learn even more about me by going to the Story Beaders blog .

Storybeader makes jewelry but you don't just get a piece of jewelry you also get a poem (haiku) writen specifically about the piece to accompany it! Deb also posts interviews of one 'blogger' every Friday. so scroll back through her Friday archives to learn more about other etsy artists who blog!

(And here's your useless piece of info for the day ....for those of you who don't know where the term blog comes from it's a contraction of the term "Web log".) Yep that's what we are all doing we are writing logs on the web for the world to read....

The Guardian of Balckbeard's treasure has been listed and Scurvy McSkull comes complete with a story too...
Will My beads continue to some with stories... doubt it!

Time to blow my own horn!

This necklace was designed for the Art Bead Scene January challenge. The January challenge was to design a piece of jewellery using the painting Irises by Vincent Van Gogh.... The necklace on the left was my entry. I was picked as designer of the week this week! Here's the blog!


I also have just joined a couple more street teams on etsy... One is the Artisan Beaders Group, one of my favorite beads is one of their feature friday picks, and last but certainly not least one of their members featured me in her blog Simply Shiny .

I'm still having fun making jellyfish beads this is my latest... I was trying to make something vaguely heart shaped and ended up with a perfect (in my opinion!) skull. So in keeping with the skull theme ... It's called Guardian of Blackbeard's Treasure. And will show up on etsy in the next couple of days! Can't you see the eyes nose and teeth ....

My free glass

Well I have my 20 rods of free glass... It's all Moretti (effetre) and vetrofond (& yes I looked up the spelling on those words!) Actually I think there is at least one rod of CIM too. There is a nice mixture of
colour and lots of odd lots!
17 of the rods even came labeled with lot number and colour! However the three on the right are anonymous! The middle one is a lavendar filligrani However I have no clue what the other two are... the orange one is quite pretty the pink might be a pale CIM... which means it will maintain it's colour but don't waste time seeing if you can encase it... I have so many huge broken beads with CIM that I don't even bother trying anymore! The orange might be tangerine sparkle....

As for the clears... so far I've used a couple of rods of the 006 will try the 006XC today. The second rod of 006 had at least half an inch of scum on it... the first one was great....

For anyone who is totally confused read more here!

Roller Ball Finger

I think this will be the next computer generated 'ailment'... Actually my husband pointed out that it's actually a scroll wheel... but Roller Ball finger sounds so much classier than scroll wheel...

The top joint on the second finger on my right hand now screams at me every time I reach for my mouse... even clicking hurts.. I'm sure it's all the scrolling while I'm reading posts in the forums.. trying to stay educated... and not playing games that's doing it! But if you get right down to it what it really means is I am spending too much time on the computer and not enough time making beads, windows and jewellery!

The Picture of the heart has absolutely nothing to do with this post... It's new and I like it ... I really like the patina on the copper... while I was playing with chemicals




I managed to also etch the glass... I think this is a much nicer etch than I get using glass etch... but i doubt if I can do it again.. also I think it spent 3 or 4 days living in various chemical baths!
( do I remember what I used ... YES do I remember the order I used them in NO!)
Sounds yummy doesn't it!

I'm a Winner...

Well sort of... I entered a quarterly 'bead contest' at Artistry in Glass a Canadian Glass Supplier in London ON. I actually entered one of my favorite beads... this is not the same view that was entered...

and was the runner up in the Intermediate category... Pictures of winners Reading the fine print on the web site I believe that the runner up is actually a name drawn from all the entries.. so I could have entered a pile of frit and still won!

What do I win 20 rods of glass (their choice) as long as I order something before the end of March and pay the shipping on the order. Actually I do need some clear glass ...

Should we take bets on what my 20 free rods are... are they going to be a selection of the most popular glass rods they carry, a sample set of the new cool colour rods (in my dreams!), or 20 rods of a colour that was discontinued because no one bought it, or I suppose if I order 5 -10 pounds of clear 006 Effretti they might just give me an extra 20 rods of that!

What do you think... lets have an unoffical poll, suggestions not listed above are welcome!