Echo!! Not really OT -

Not much is new here. After a great Fall/Winter of 50 and 60 degree weather, the temperature has dropped to the 20's and below. My hands are still trying to warm up after the sudden change. I've been relaxing after the Christmas rush, trying to decide if I'm going to continue to do craft fairs. So far all I've decided is to make more etched dichroic glass pendants which are fun and selling well. Here's a link to one of them:

dichro3th.jpg I'm doing a jewelry party, class and sale later this month and teaching a beading class at one of our other libraries in May. It feels good to have some freedom back. I've done a couple of bead exchanges on WetCanvas and they've been fun. Great eye candy there as well. Going to the International Flameworking Conference March 17 & 18 and then to the big bead shows in NYC the following weekend. I won't be going out to Bead & Button this year. I'm debating about going to the GAS (Glass Art Society) conference in Pittsburgh since it's so close, well, if 6 and 1/2 hours away could be called close, this year. Next year GAS is in Portland, hmm, I'd love to go to Portland again... That's all the news, such as it is. What's new with you, Kandice? How are you feeling? Patti

link should be:

Those are pretty, Patti! I love the fish!

Well, I'm officially old. I got my first pair of bifocals today. Hopefully, I'll get used to them. It will be nice to be able to read again! (Kandice, you can laugh at us old people. I know you can't relate to this at all!)

AND, I said goodbye to my wonderful foster dog, Hobie, today. SNIFF. I did a home visit and am very comfortable with his new home, the couple that adopted him, and their other two dogs. The husband is retired and takes care of the home, their lake, fishpond, etc., so he's home with the dogs. I really wanted to find a reason not to like them, and keep Hobie for myself! He and Spike had become best buds.

Well, it's finally warming up here, just a bit, into the high 40s and low 50s, and I go on mornings at work next week, so...

I'm going out to the shed and get it cleaned up and ready to start torching. Something's happening that I never thought would happen... I'm getting tired of working with polymer clay. When the next issue of Belle Armoire comes out my PolyDichroFusion beads will be in a how-to article and I'm excited about that, but it means I'm giving away that technique. That's fine though because I'm so ready to move on! I'll still be lampworking on my Hot Head but that's ok, because I haven't come close to doing all that can be done on that kind of torch. I'm thinking about starting to list my clay canes for auction and just get rid of them and make the complete transition to lampworking. I was just getting rolling on learning and coming up with my own style when I had to quit for the winter. So I'm really looking forward to getting back to it! I'm still debating whether to just stick with Moretti and Vetrofond glass or get more into Satake, which works so well on a Hot Head torch because of the higher COE. Not sure yet. Maybe once I use up all my Moretti. I need a lot of practice so it shouldn't take long!

:) What a pretty pendant!

I am doing okay - just pretty much trying to recuperate from a very busy and stressful holiday season. I am glad spring is on the way.

Wish I were going to all the neat shows and events coming up! But we're saving for a house, so we have to really keep the spending to a minimum, which means no real travelling. Except in May - Ken and I celebrate our

10th anniversary, so we hope to be able to go to Vegas to visit some friends. I've never been there - I'm really looking forward to it.

Anyway - that's about it for me! :)

ROFL - can't relate??? Damn, I can't even see these days! :D I've had bifocals before, but they really bothered me, so now I don't. But all this beading and beadmaking and computer work sure speeds up the eye failure. :D

I heard Satake works well on the Hot Head, too - and they have such pretty colors!

I have a Satake glass bead I bought from Leah Fairbanks. It is the most lucious shade of pink! Just beautiful glass. It's one of the ones I've collected (hoarded?) and only take out to admire.

Patti

Kandice, Saving for a house is not easy, but it will be worth it in the long run. I hope you are able to go to Vegas, I've never been there either. We won't be going anywhere far this year either, unless I can save up lots of $$ between now and vacation time. The only reason I get to go to the bead shows in NYC is that they are only a train ride away. The Flameworking Conference is about 60 miles away. Afterwards, I'm taking off 2 days and going down to lower Delaware to see my mother in law since it's only a 2 l/2 hour trip from Salem, versus 3 l/2 to 4 hours from here. There's so much traffic here that driving long distances is no longer fun, especially by myself. I must be getting old because people's bad driving is really beginning to bother me.

Patti

Oh, you can relate!! This has been such a pain.

I went to the IBS show yesterday and felt like I couldn't see the tables. It was very frustrating. I guess I have to get used to exactly where I need to look out of.

I mopped the floors, and I can't see the floor.

Is there a niche for a blind beadmaker?

Dog stalking! I love it. So, they couldn't stay together for the sake of the dog? Lol.

I'm going to take a couple of days off before I pick up another foster, but not to worry, there are plenty in the wings. Not sure what I'll be getting next.

You're not getting old. I hate driving - I can't stand other people's driving either! LOL Maybe we're both getting old! :)

(((((hugs))))) Can't wait to "meet" your new foster dog. :) I am sure they love living with you.

You are a LOT younger than I am! I've been thinking a lot about age lately since my last birthday - it was the last one in this particular age decade. So...I've decided I have to do a lot of crazy, youthful things this year, because next birthday I will officially be old. I plan on wearing a lot of inappropriate clothes, raising hell, singing at my favorite Irish bar, designing with very bright colors, having parties for no reason...buying more and more beads, dressing up my cat, dog stalking.... Patti

>

You know, I'm not making a darned thing (jewelry wise) but I have purchased an absolute crapload of stuff in the past several months. Replentishing my stash? I can see some of them made up but simply can't do it.

I'm drinking an energy drink these days to mask the fact that I am, quite simply, tired a lot. I think the energy drink keeps me from falling asleep at night, LMAO, so it is (of course) counterproductive, but most days I feel better than I have felt for YEARS. It is heavy on B vitamins.

I have been working weekends helping people around the office do various things at their homes. It is exhausting. And, work during the normal work day (the 40+ hour job that I use to support myself) has been nothing short of wild. Packed, all the time. I don't have time to come here and no desire to get on the internet when I get home at night. I have missed you all. Let's go shopping together!!

Much love -- Becki

Wouldn't it be nice if we all lived close enough to actually go bead shopping together? I could see all of us causing a riot in one of the wholesale bead stores in the Bead District in NYC. lol Patti

That would be so much fun! The bead stores would not know what hit them. :)