My new Diddy....

When I was at Cabin Fever Clay Festival, I took a class with Julie Picarello, which REALLY INSPIRED me. Since I have been home I have worked on two different batches of beads made with the techniques I learned from her. Here is a picture of one. I am also working on taking better pictures of my work. The gold leafing you see peeking through is 23K gold leafing, neat eh? I need to get me some more of that good stuff!!!! Stay tuned to my blog for more pictures and the other color scheme that I also made the beads in.

WHOA NELLIE.....

Whoa Nellie, I found myself on Donna Kato's website, Yes a picture of yours truly (me) taken by Donna when I took her class. How COOL is that!!! My jaw was on the floor, I am on her site!!!!! :-) And she remembered my name!!!!! I must of made some kind of impression, hopefully it was a good one and not just the sick germ kind.
What did Cabin Fever Clay Festival do to me???? I know all of my friends that know me are going to look at these pictures and chuckle (normally I am a pretty organized gal). Their jaws will be on the floor!!!! I sometimes avoid going in my studio when it gets like this because I can't work in it. It is not so bad as I spent some time with A. down there tonight cleaning up a bit. A's playroom is that blue wall and I can see across to it which is nice. My husband and I planned that one before we even had kids, smart thinking eh? The only problem I've discovered is when balls like to come flying across and BONK into some of my stuff. Other than that it is all good.



What is on my sewing table??????
As promised these are the heart pot holders that have been on my sewing table. I was trying to get them done for Valentine's Day, but as you can see that didn't happen. There is a very cool insert to these is is special pot holder batting that reflects the heat to the object!!! You can feel it immediately when you put your hand on it. Next step is sewing on the bias tape which I have never done before so that is also probably part of the hang up on these. And I need to change the thread in my machine to RED. Another hang up and make a bobbin of red too, another hang up.

The idea came from this magazine which is a Martha Stewart magazine which I got for free at my local library's magazine exchange, the premise is put one or a few in and take some for yourself - I love it and it is a great way to recycle all of my magazines I have around the house. When I am done reading the ones I took I can also return those again too - a great program.


I know this isn't the greatest picture but the hearts have pockets, which I thought was a really neat cool feature. See the person holding the pot? Neat eh?

Me with Donna Kato, I don't like how I look in this picture with the flu and all, I look very puffy!
Nan Roche, LOVE her!!!!
Nan going over a few techniques.
Nan's piece
Donna Kato, style and stuff!

How was my trip to Cabin Fever Clay Festival...

Well it depends on what version you want.... I was the token sick germ walking around, I hate to say it but it was true, I believe I have the FLU and had the FLU on my trip too. John had the FLU on his time off and while he was taking care of A. So basically we had some VERY BAD timing!!!! Apparently I am not the only one go visit Polka Dot Creations, she is now in the same city/area that I just left and not feeling well either, I would have loved to have meet her. However I didn't go on to Synergy and that was a good thing considering my health and the health of my husband.

As far as the clay classes go I learned some cool stuff, even my roommate felt like she was running a marathon while we were there and she was healthy, so you can imagine how I felt. I had 12 hours of classes on Monday and 8 hours of classes on Tuesday, all while running a fever, coughing, and blowing my nose. On night two I had to get my own room because my cough was keeping my roommate up-so that was a big BUMMER. You don't even want to know the price tag on my room, because I kept my deal with my roommate, to split our room rate. I need to start selling stuff!!! Big Time!!!! It was basically double what I would have had to pay if I hadn't needed the extra room and I only used the extra room two nights not three, I was OK the first night and that was the *sympathy*rate, trust me (guy at front desk) he felt bad for me at 11:40am at night, he even gave me cough drops!

Here were the positives:

• I saw my friend Debbie and that was great!!! She is doing really well (not teaching anymore) but doing volunteer work at museums and being a one room school house teacher etc. Her son is getting married this summer too.
• I meet a lot of wonderful Polymer Clay teachers and I got to take classes from them.
• Donna Kato signed both of my books, which I schlepped all the way there.
• Nan Roche and Judy Picarello's classes I LOVED!!!!!!!!! They were definitely highlights for me!
• I got some really cool zipper pulls from the swap even though I didn't make any since I didn't have time, I had only found out about the yahoo group and the swap a week prior to going. People were so generous. I got some cool zipper pulls.
• My roommate and friend Ramona is easy going and fun to go on trips with, we get along really well. We also understand silence when we are exhausted at the end of the trip.
• I even got a free counseling session - a long story - Rob from Polymer Clay Express understands, he is a great guy!!!! They had their store set up.
• I got to see work from all sorts of people that attended the show and I bought a piece from Judy Picarello.
• I meet people from all over the world Iris Mishly from Israel, her notes were so cool they were in Hebrew and looked like an art form all by themselves.! I meet two great women from Alaska whom had also left their husbands taking care of their kids, they were going on to Synergy as well. Wisconsin, Florida, Maryland, PA and so on...