About Me

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I am a multifaceted woman, living with intention and passion. I always see the glass as half full (ok, almost always). Currently into: jewelry design, glass beadmaking (aka lampworking), visual journaling, cooking and web design everything. Things that bring me great joy: my family, friends, Scrabble, British period pieces, Shabby Chic, Austin, TX, mini art tiles, autographed cookbooks, chocolate, Chianti, pedicures and beach glass. I don't "do" and/or dig: dishonesty, guilt, intolerance, unkindness, drama and goat cheese (it's a long story, but I love all the other cheeses!) So you now have a teeny tiny little picture of me, with a few warts thrown in. Welcome to my world!

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Art Attack

Where do I begin? I grew up feeling like I had no artistic talent because I could not stay in the lines when coloring, lol, which I've since learned is something that has plagued a lot of other people. I dabbled with crafts of all sorts, cross stitch, sewing, quilting, collage and more, always moving on after a while, falling in love with some new craft or medium. About 14 years ago I discovered beads and beading. And then I started making jewelry using beach glass and stained glass equipment. My friends called me an artist before I could call myself one. But eventually, I embraced it and love being an artist. I learned to make glass beads, lampworking, about 9 or 10 years ago and incorporated my beads into my jewelry designs. I started buying more "artsy" clothing to wear to art shows and buying art and fun things that appealed to the artist in me for my home. I even played with some pieces of furniture. And then a few years ago, I stopped decorating my house with "artsy" finds or things that I embellished. My house became less creative and more traditional. And I've lived with it like that for the last several years. Until this week. I spent some time watching a few Teesha Moore videos on Youtube. I thought it would be fun to get a little prepared for my upcoming workshop with her...but I got more out of it than I had imagined. I loved the how-to videos and began to use some of the new art supplies I purchased just for the class to create some visual journal pages. The process of painting, collage, pen, pencil, crayon and writing has gripped me and my consciousness like nothing else! I've been immersed in creating my own pages for the last couple days, going so far as to create a travel case of supplies so I can work on the go. So far I've worked in the Dr.'s office, at my daughter's piano lesson and during intermission at my other daughter's high school play. My head is filled with so many things, I feel like it will spin right off! And now I want to start adding color and layers to my house!!! To bring pleasure to me and my family without worrying what anyone else with think. I feel like some chains of convention have just been broken and discarded...I feel so liberated!!!!!!! Can't wait to start working as soon as I get up and whenever I can find even a few minutes. Can you hear me purring?

Monday, May 31, 2010

Playing with my Food


It's been a great food filled weekend at my house. On Friday night I put a nice pork shoulder into the crockpot with some chipotle pepper, onion, fresh garlic and ground cumin. By the morning, the entire house smelled intoxicating! I made slow roasted pork tacos for breakfast, with homemade ranchero sauce and fresh avocado. And we found some new corn and flour blended tortillas that were amazing! Then this morning my hubby made migas, cut up corn tortillas with eggs, along with homemade pico de gallo and a side of the roasted pork. Tonight, I used all the juice from the roasted pork and a couple cups of the pork, chopped fine to make polenta. It tasted like tamales without the husk! Earlier today, I made one of my favorite dishes, asparagus potato salad, but added some corn kernals, cut off freshly cooked corn on the cob. My kids loved it, so I'm really happy with the food holiday weekend. And being in the kitchen is another creative outlet for me...I just love playing with food!

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Playing with My Beads



Spent time playing with my beads and bead collection, creating some new jewelry for my Etsy shop today. I bought a gross of tiny light bulbs, the kind with two wires sticking out one end, so I was able to create wrapped loops. They are very light weight and make great kinetic earrings. I also created some new pendants with some of my lampwork glass focal beads. It was so exhilarating to create jewelry and fondle my beads, it has been way too long. I realized that I have quite a bit of sorting and organizing to do and made the tiniest of dents today. Of course, as I sort and organize, I see everything I have and get inspired all over again. If you are interested, here is my Etsy Shop.