Me and the Plaid gang on Day 3 at the big Craft and Hobby showdown in Cali.  That's Cathie and Steve from DIY's Creative Juice television show and the lovely Donna Dewberry-genius behind the One Stroke painting technique.  Side Note:  The night before Cathie cut up my Mod-Podge T.  She's a master T-shirt slasher….I'm not kidding-it was magic what she did.  And now, I cannot look at a T without thinking about how to alter it.  Thanks Cath 😉

This is a sweet magnet Cathie and Steve made me.  Check out the new Extreme Glitter Paint by Plaid.  This stuff is so SPARKLIN' HOT!  I think you'll love it.  You can paint it over plain or base coated surfaces–the more coats, the more sparkle.  And then Mod Podge your cut shapes and flat back crystals for added embellishment.  Wood flower shapes would be great for spring…and I am soooo ready for Spring!

This week is one big blur…

Tuesday night I gave a lecture about myself and work at the Honeywell House, Wednesday night was Sit and Stitch and then onto violin practice with a group I've not played with before, Thursday night I taught a simple stringing class (read on for more), Friday night my parents and I ventured on down to Anderson, Indiana to Hoosier Park for an all-you-can-eat-buffet (crab legs, shrimp, CHOCOLATE FONDUE FOUNTAIN!), Saturday I volunteered at the business expo here in town, and then this morning I played my violin with a neat group at a local church…it's also amazing how much work I got done with all this in the evenings.  It was a great week and the best part was seeing even more people that I haven't bumped into since I've been home.

The bracelet class on Thursday night was a blast-18 people signed up and each bracelet looked smashing.  I'm not just saying that either–people were very chill, just stringing some beads and enjoying the company of their friends or new friends.  Take a peek…

Have you made a bracelet with a button and seed bead loop closure?  I love them.  Great way to treasure that vintage button you've been hanging on to.  I know you've got one tucked away in your favorite button box.

Lots of bead hunting, thinking, and it was neat because friends came together and helped each other out with major design decisions…

Here's a few of the bracelets from the night.  Many had them on at the business expo yesterday and that made me smile…big.  Thanks girls.

I tucked about 8 of Plaid's new FRESH resin charms in the charm bowl.  It's no surprise there were none left at the end of class because they are so cool.  Heather layered silver charms on top which looks awesome.  You can buy Fresh charms at Michaels and I believe other craft stores are selling them now so it's worth a peek.  We also used Beadalon's 49 strand, .018 diameter beading wire.  It's my favorite all time wire.

And new friendships were made….love that part too.  For me, I'm always a little nervous about taking a class by myself, but inevitably I come home with 3 new friends.  You know what they say–you can never have enough crafty friends (ok I inserted the "crafty" part).

I have so many favorite parts about teaching…the smile (and sometimes amazement) on their face once they've finished their bracelet and seeing people's spirit come out in their creation—soft and bold, calm to playful.  It's wonderful. 

First off, your words of kindness about my last post moved me to tears and warmed my heart.  Thank you for the comments and emails you guys.  It is your support that gives me courage and strength to keep on truckin' on my creative road of life—who wants "shot-gun"?!?! (I know, my corny sense of humor is still in tact). 

One of the positives of not blogging for awhile is that I have tons to share with you.  I always knew I would pick it up again so I kept documenting with lots of pictures.  Let's back track a bit to when I told you about my photo shoot for my new book.  It's the eve of day four of the photo shoot…we are delirious at best!  But!  Being the die-hards that we are, Linda Kopp, my editor, and I start making earrings at 5:30.  She's a PMC junkie and I a mad-metalsmith so together we fabricated a couple pairs of earrings down in the Lark Books Offices' basement…

She lines up the parts…tweaking and sanding.

and I assemble, enlarge holes in the PMC findings and make the ear wires…now that she's edited my new book, "Metalsmithing 101 for Beaders", she should be able to do this on her own (wink wink).  This is my make-shift studio in the Lark Kitchen.  Here's what we came up with…

Kind of like windows or how we draw sky-scrapers when we are children (or now in my case), these parts have dried PMC chips in them. AND…

Rustic chandelier earrings–the base is PMC and so are a couple of the beads.  I balled up copper wires and hammered the ends.  Don't forget the Liver of Sulphur!

The next day we headed off to the Vanderbilt mansion.  Unbelievable!  It was decorated for Christmas…I felt like I was in a doll-house it was so enormous!  Breath-taking.

Today we spoke on the phone and I have to say, I love my editor (and everyone at Lark Books really).  But, Linda is such a joy to work with and I mean that with every ounce of my heart.  She really inspires me and I have learned so much from her.  Getting a chance to play at the end of the shoot was the cherry on top to my trip there.

From a recent bio photo shoot…one week ago today actually.

Remember that scene in Weekend at Bernie’s, where Bernie is being drug behind the ski boat?  Yeah, the past few months have sort of been like that. I’m Bernie and there was no way I was letting go of the rope.  I never know how much to tell about my personal life over here on the ol’ blog, but I feel I owe you guys an explanation of where I’ve been….  Plain and simple:  Butch and I got a divorce.  It was finalized a few days before Christmas.  Heart-breaking…even when you know it’s the right thing to do.  They say you go through a denial period when confronted with decisions like this and I’m pretty sure I did when I came back from China early.  I’m not hateful about it, we’re still friends.  I’ve spoken to many folks who’ve been “through it” and often the story is the same:  things just get away from you.  It was no different for us.  My family and friends have been so supportive—we’ve grieved the loss and embraced life together.  There are days when I really can't believe I lived so far from my family.  My mom and I teach art classes together, dad's bbq's, walks with Rocker and Grandpa.  Oh, I love being near them again.  Then there's dear Katie Hacker and beady sleep-overs at her house.  Double trouble there!  I played the violin all through high school and put it down when I went to college.  Recently, I decided to start playing with some ol’ boys from a garage band I was in back in HS.  It seemed so un-cool to play the violin in school, but now 10 years later, it’s kinda cool!  Another old friend from my youth works in a building near my apartment—so she and I catch up often.    Someone once said “friends are the best medicine” and I believe it—love my friends!  We’ve taken road trips to Michaels craft store, went sledding, made Valentines, cooked food, played music, gone to see live music, museum parties, and the list keeps growing.  Rocker still struts his stuff all over town—had to get him a parka for Indiana’s brisk winter days (which he hated-talk about “un-cool”).  The snow concerned me because he is a tropical dog, but boy, let the fella off the leash and he turns into a little white deer prancing around in the snow.  So cute.

My Compass ring, for those days when you're feeling a little bit lost 😉

I’m teaching, working at the Craft and Hobby Association show with Plaid, finishing my new book, designing new stuff for magazines—all very exciting.

Sometimes we have to make-over our lives if something isn’t working.  It's hard.  I can think of a million analogies for it, the first one coming to mind is deep cleaning my apartment–where's the fly-lady?!?!  But, through all these alterations, I’ve learned a ton about myself (some things I wanted to know, some I didn’t, of course).  Forgive me for the disappearance, it's been a ton to digest, lots of growing pains, and I'm happy to be feeling back to my old self again.  Thanks for sticking around, thanks for the worried emails, and thanks most for the support over the years. 

(compass component from Ornamentea.com—you'd be amazed how many people want one of these rings!)

Day 4 here in Asheville and things are going great with my book's photo shoot.  It's been exciting to see it coming together.  And, boy, to get to hang out in Asheville for the big project makes me feel so lucky!  Such a great town with super people.  

I'm also lucky to have these two ladies working out the artsy details here…

That's Kathy, the art director on the left and Lynn, the photographer on the right.  Thank you girls for all your hard work!  Last night, my editor and I stayed at the office for some late night beading.  More pictures on that later….

Oh, it's getting down to the wire around here on my book.  I've been busy gathering parts and pieces and making lists for the photo-shoot that starts on Monday down at Lark offices.  I'm looking forward to seeing my editor and catching up with her.  We haven't seen each other in a couple of years so that should be fun.  Here's some links from the Bead Bloggers…

Vacation Necklace
Carmi thinks nature provides pre-drilled shells just for her.

Strands of Beads
Melissa ponders ethical issues involving some vintage beads

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
The day before the election, Jean urged us all to vote, which we did! On a jewelry note, she mentioned her fun article concerning gift ideas for the upcoming holidays which she wrote for Soft Flex!

Savvy Crafter-Candie Cooper
Candie's teaching at Ornamentea—see the class projects and details on her blog…

Naughty Secretary Club
Jen invites collage artist Traci Bautista to Austin for a little paint meets jewelry adventure.

Jewelry & Beading
Using multiple techniques, Cyndi has made an autumn necklace that warms her heart now that the days are cold!

Get ready for the holidays with Katie's great gift ideas
Check out three of Katie's favorite gifts to give (and create!) this holiday season!

Carter Seibels for Divali Glass Jewelry
New designs for Fall are live on the Divali website; and Carter gets a technology facelift!

Barbe Saint John – New Treasures from Forgotten Artifacts
Barbe is giving a way a copy of "Get Your Sparkle On', find out how to win it!

Art Jewelry Magazine
A reader tests Art Jewelry's acid-free etching technique

Art Bead Scene
Ribbon Isn't Just for Wrapping Presents!

About.com Jewelry Making
Looking for some early holiday jewelry ideas? Start now with these simple projects that will apeal to a range of fashion tastes.

Wow!  Temperatures dropped today and at the moment there are heavy splats of rain hitting the pavement.  Ah yes, do you hear that knocking?  It's Jack Frost, I think.  And with this cold weather, warm foods are at the forefront of my mind.  Today I'm making Ultimate Potato Soup for tonight's dinner.  A few weeks ago, I ordered soup at a great little pub in Ft. Wayne where they served a smather of peanut butter and pumpkin butter with a hearty slice of bread.  I wanted more…

So I made some.  It worked well to cut the recipe in half because then you only need one small can of pumpkin.  Then again, you could be the most popular kid in town if you make the full recipe, and share some with your friends.

The aroma from simmering those spices filled my apartment.  So nice and warm.  I had one small jar, so I sterilized it and filled it up.  The rest awaits in my fridge for the potato soup and…some toast.