Pam as the mad scientist

Took an electroforming class at Vickie Hallmark's house on Sunday. Although my result wasn't so good (let's just leave it at that she's taking it with her to her Bead and Button class as an example of what NOT to do) I had a splendid time. Lydia and Leslie were there, too, two people I see way too seldom. And, kudos to Vickie, who recently took a tumble, and is spending her time between a wheel chair and a walker. Also doesn't help that her bedroom is upstairs, and her studio is downstairs. And she's literally stuck in the middle. Her humor is much better than mine would be. Anyway, I did snap a few pictures, mostly so I could remember what to do later.

This first one is just a snap of my beads in the beaker, ready for their bath. At this point they've been coated with copper paint and processed:



This one is of the beads all hooked up, ready to coat:



The last one is pretty boring, but does lend to the whole mad scientist thing. It's also a reminder of how to hook stuff up once I get the equipment home.



Vickie has a PhD in Chemical Engineering, so she was able to give quite a bit of insight on the whole process. Needless to say, I'm anxious to try again. Take a look here to see some of the amazing electroformed work she's done.

Emily - deer (almost) slayer

I went out to get the mail on Saturday - and looked up just in time to see a deer clear the back fence, hurtle towards me, and bound off to the neighbor-across-the-street's yard. And who was on her heels? Well, okay, until the back fence, at least. Miss Emily! She of the arthritic hips....LOL Her muff was about fours times normal size. I'm sure she was dreaming of venison tacos.

Tomorrow is bead making day!

So, Saturday is the day I get to sit down at the torch. Maybe I can get super motivated and even take some pictures.

Later!

Another day....

And not much to say. Work is winding down - today is the last day of finals, and it's QUIET around here. I got two major projects out the door - one yesterday, and one today. Did I say it's QUIET?!

Too bad I can't bring my torch up here. I guess I can spend some time thinking about designs, doing some sketching, maybe. I'm just totally not good at wasting time.

On the bright side: a guilt-free hamburger!

Oh, yeah - beads!

Well, no beads, really, but pictures from a few classes I've been to recently:

In February, Trey Cornette - all about stringer control:



In March, with Caitlin Hyde - drawing on beads.



And, in April, a BHB (big-holed bead!) class with Heather Trimlett



Next up is Vickie Hallmark for an electroforming/carving class, then Haley Tsang in June.

First pedi of the summer

I just LOVE that first pedicure of the summer. Kinda like getting new tennis shoes when I was a kid, I guess. I don't get them over the winter, even though I'm fanatical about keeping calluses at bay year 'round (probably goes in the "more than you wanted to know about me" category). Anyway, toes are a beautiful shade of hot pink, with little yellow flowers and shooting glitter leaves on the big toes....Breaking out the Birki's tomorrow!

How pathetic is this.....

Yes, there's a reason I make beads. And there's a reason I don't bake:



Tony said he'd bake me a cake for Mother's Day. Yeah, right. I finally did the baking about 3 yesterday afternoon - German Chocolate. The first picture is about 30 minutes after the cake was iced. After about an hour, it looked like this:



Given another 30 minutes, it acheived full Balcones Fault status:



I'm blaming Betty Crocker.....

Woo hoo!

Two days in a row. Loving the cute little computer. Er, digital clutch....

Really enjoyed seeing everybody at the bead show. Often the only time I get to see many of you - always reminds me of my hermit ways. LOL I guess the only down side was the astonishing amount of chinese (assuming) beads at $1 per strand. I understand the economy is tough and all, but geez....oh well. I do have to admit that when I was a newbie beader I would have snapped them up to, and congratulated myself on my bargain-securing talents. I wonder if it's like that with all addictions? I mean, do you start out on crap heroin, then say, "Oh I want THAT heroin because it's better quality?" Just random musing here, but I do remember that when Tony and were first married we thought round steak was the bomb! We'd never had anything like that growing up.

Also very excited because Syfy is premiering Mongolian Death Worms Saturday night....

Blogging, part deux

Okay,trying this again. One reason I haven't been posting is just simply the logistics of my schedule. I have most often posted from work - typically over lunch breaks - but of course using my work computer. My bosses here are terrific, and I know they wouldn't technically have a problem with this, but I've always been a bit queasy about it. (And, I'm totally on board with a policy like this.) Anyway, I thought I'd pretty much shoot myself if I got fired for something this stupid. And, YES, of course I have a computer at home, but it's just hard to sit down and think even MORE, even just to blog. Deciding that the only reasonable solution all the way around was to take a portable computer to work, well, sorry, but laptops are still frickin' heavy. So, voila, a solution:

Vivienne Tam Butterfly Digital Clutch

As I told Teresa, it is just so friggin' cute I can't STAND it!