JULY 4TH WITH A BANG!

I'm feeling pretty energized today. It's raining outside so we just ran errands and I shopped at the art supply store. I found this wonderful paper and couldn't resist. I know I could make my own, but this was faster. I'll find a use for it. I'm thinking I may scan it into the computer and use it for my business cards. Yes, I said business cards!Yesterday I delivered the starter order to the little shop in Harrison and while I was unpacking everything and showing her the chimes and rainbow sticks, we made a sale! A customer that happened to be there looking around bought a rainbow stick for her daughter. The gal that owns the shop is really into beachy things and shell art. Of course, you all know how much I love the beach, so I think we will work well together. I'm already thinking of new things to make that will have a beach theme.

And, sometime this weekend I will have an Etsy shop. This is all because of you, my dear friends, and all your support and encouragement. My email capabilities are down today and won't be repaired until morning. I had hoped to be able to set up my shop today, but now it will have to wait until tomorrow afternoon. So now I am off to the studio to come up with some new and exciting works of art.

Hope you have a real cracker of a 4th!

This is our old court house. It has since been replaced by a a new one, but the architecture will never be as grand as this one. It sits on a block all by itself, rather like a village green. Farmer's markest set up around the perimeter on Saturdays. As you all head out to do have your fun this holiday weekend, please take a moment to remember why you are celebrating. This is for all those who work and have worked to keep our nation free. Have fun and take care.

ROLL OUT THOSE LAZY, HAZY, CRAZY DAYS OF SUMMER....

About once a day I try to poke my head out of the basement studio to see what's going on around my yard.It's July, time for pretzels and popcorn and beer. And a pretty purple birdhouse in the trumpet vine.

This coneflower seems very delictable to the bee sitting on top.

I'm not sure what these are. They are bigger than black-eyed-susans, but they are planted in front of the Black Knight (purple) butterfly bush that is just starting to bloom and the contrast will be very striking if they last that long.

This is the Knockout Rosebush revving up for its second flowering.

The goldfinches just hang around the diner. The mourning doves eat what spills out on the ground.

And the finches, the butterflies, the humming birds, and the bees all love this garden and I so enjoy watching them.

I have to go back to the basement now. I hear glass calling me. See you tomorrow.

OK, I'm rising to Suki's challenge to find our present self in our past pictures. This is me at age 3. I was desperate to learn to read right from birth. My dad always read me bedtime stories and I remember being so frustrated because I couldn't read them myself. I remember begging anyone to teach me to read. These are the Sunday comics, and after someone read them to me, I would go back over them and re-read them to myself all day. To this day, I am NEVER without a book or magazine. I carry one in the car, so I'll have something to read at stoplights and at trains and anyplace else I might have to wait. I have pretty much taught myself to do most everything, from dog grooming (which I did for 20 years) to flower arranging, to the glass art that I do now, just by reading books on the subjects.

This is me at age 5, and this is the begining of my love affair with fast cars, houses and decorating. I loved this dollhouse and wanted more, but my parents said I already had one, that was enough. So I collected cardboard boxes and decorated them with scraps of fabric left from my mother's and grandmother's sewing, gluing down "carpet" and curtains and making furniture from any kind of usable trash I could find. Later, in my late teens, I thought I wanted to study textiles and fashion design, or interior decorating, and I should have. I don't know why I didn't.

This is me at age 20. I was still into textiles and fashion design and I made everything I am wearing in this picture. I was not living at home at this time, but came home for Christmas. This is my mom and dad in the picture. After high school, I seemed to have no real direction or goals except for earning a living and getting by. I had a job at a bank and an apartment and was very independent. My role model was Marlo Thomas in "That Girl", and I wanted to be just like her. I missed the memo that said in order to do that successfully, you needed some further education!

I am still very independent and am not afraid to go out on a limb to reach what I want. Sometimes I get in over my head and fall on my face, but so what? Just get up and try again. You will never know if you can do something unless you try, and if you can't do it, try something else.

JUST CATCHING UP

Today is the day when I do all my catching up for the week; laundry, ironing, house cleaning and bill paying. While I was busy with all these exciting chores I threw some glass into the kiln to fuse for use in the windchimes I'm making. These pieces are glued (yes, glued as in good old Elmer's) in place and ready to go into the kiln. The glue burns off and it's as if it was never there.

These are some pieces I fired last night and are ready to come out this morning.

Here are some finished pieces ready to be incorporated into the chimes.

This is how the chimes look before I solder the edges of the glass pieces and attach rings for stringing them together.

And in between I wired a few beads for use in the Rainbow Sticks which are the next items in the assembly line.

Suki has posed a new challenge for us on her blog. As alway, she is so insightful and thought provoking. Good luck with her assignment. I'm thinking about that while I'm working on these other things.

Hope you are all having a great weekend.

NEW COVER

OK, I had to make a new cover for my traveling sketchbook, because El Stupido didn't make the other cover large enough! I don't know how that happened, since I use a measured template, but it did. So, this is the new cover. Similar, but different. And I think I may like this one better. So Monday it will be winging its way to Ellen Sereda, in British Columbia, Canada. Please stop by her Etsy shop and view her amazing art.


And this is the book I won on Sukipoet's blog for in a givaway drawing. Aren't I lucky? And the main character works with GLASS! How cool is that??? I'm starting it tonite. Thank you, Suki.

I have been invited to participate in a traveling sketchbook exchange. Dinah, at Idle Thoughts of an Idle Woman, who lives in Australia has arranged for four other Aussies, one New Yorker, one Canadian, and myself to begin our exchange this weekend. So in my spare, spare time, I've been working on my offering. This is the cover of my book. As you all know, I love crazy, outrageous, loud art. So, what better than wild dreams? I've also decided to have a vertical book; creates a little more of a challenge.

This is my page. It is a watercolor with stamp art. As books come around to me I will post some of what I see, and of course, I will post my pages. We don't have any assigned "themes" for our books, so it will be interesting to see what we come up with.