Studio Tour of Phar Lepht

Yikes! I just spent about an hour writing and posting pictures and then totally lost it!!! I just goes to show... Hah! (You will never know how brilliantly I wrote this the first time.)

Anyways, I am gonna try again. This will be my last journal entry until we return from our vacation (Yay! Vacation!!!) as I have a show next week (first weekend of March) at Ft. Bliss, Tx and then leave soon after for the big event. I have a show the first weekend in April in San Antonio so my time is going to be limited for journaling.

I spent a lot of time after returning from the Gem & Mineral show in Tucson rearranging and reorganizing the studio. Let's just say, I got carried away...

I took pictures of the new and improved. Let me know what you think.



My birdie Sky, reference materials, catalogs, bead mags and books. This is facing the dinning area on our sunporch and you can just make out the bird head in the jar on the dinning table. I am refurbishing a wooden roadrunner sculpture my Daddy made for me years ago. The pink 'blankie' is Sky's.



My desk...notice the wooden shelf on top which holds some of my tools and small findings. This was also made by my Dad and he and my Mom gave me the anvil on the desk. See my new chasing hammer and rubber mallet! The small lavender bookshelf which holds bead boxes was my Grandmother Hettie's (she taught me Crafts!)



This is the corner of the studio, you can see my suncatchers (except for the one I just got from Caryn...I didn't have it then.) It is too dark (hey! I am not the photographer in the family) but you can see my view and the aleppo pine that I planted the year Noah was born. They are both big boys now. It was a rare and cloudy day in Phar Lepht.






My card-table work-station thingee which I use depending on the project. The cool Ott Light (natural light) was a gift from Cecil and the huge magnifier in the back was made by my Daddy (he is clever, isn't he?)






The sewing table desk next to my jewelry desk that belonged to Bernadine (Nana.) I gave the sewing machine to my daughter-in-law Jenni but kept the desk (I need all the space I can get.) On top is an organizer box that holds jars of beads which I painted in my folksie style. Also is my carousel spinner beady thingee which is exceedingly cool and I got that for free with an order. Notice, more tools and please ignore the dust, I do...





My storage cabinets which hold paper, bags, paints, glass, empty jars, bobbles and of course, more tools. The postcards on the outside are ones that I picked up at different bead shows and are inspirations.



The following are just some close-ups (ignore the dust, I do...) of some areas and the labeling I did. The Barnum and Bailey tin holds my glues and is appropriate considering my parents were/are Clowns. (Really!)












Well, you get the idea of my space. Thanks for coming on the tour...the door is always open and yes, that last picture is a dog. Yogi (the Yog, Yoggie Doggie or Scobby Do) and he is a fixture too.

Today I Can't Drive 55

I am not even going to send out invitations to this post. Today I am having a Daytona 500 Par-tay and I am the only one I can invite. My Posse has no interest in the big race, my partner indulges me, my youngest is aghast at my 'before the TV antics' as I scream and yell and let my pedal to the metal mentality go to the floor (although, I hear him scream and yell at those wrestlers in the other room...) My oldest is only slightly interested and didn't get the racing gene from my side of the family. My Mom, Dad, Pop, and Bro all have the gene.

I love, love, love NASCAR and am not afeared to admit it. I know the oldies and goldies, I absolutely adored Big E and his outlaw black Chevy. I love Chevies too and drive one to this day.

I don't like Jeff Gordon (sorry bro) and his holier than thou attitude, his treatment of his wife or a multitude of his sins. Hah! I don't care for anyone named 'Bush' either. If you drive a Ford, get out of the way!

.

I like Kevin, Kasey and Mikey and that Stewart is hard to beat but my love is always for the ones that earned-my-heart and now it is little E...he's my boy-o

So don't bother me today. I am busy. I have a race to watch. I have snacks and sodas. I have to scream and yell, hide my eyes and stuff like that...

Note: NASCar has a new rule about 'driving agressively'...Whaaa??? That is a stupid new rule.

Vacation (Not the Chevy Chase Version)

It hasn't been that long since my last journal entry about Tucson. Don't get the idea that I am going to post here more than once a month but I am so excited, I just had to tell you...

I AM GOING ON A VACATION!!! A real time vacation, something Cecil and I have NEVER, EVER done with each other since we have been married. Cecil's brother (one of the evil twins) didn't believe in vacations, and since Cecil worked for him...he didn't get a vacation (paid or unpaid) in twenty some odd years. Oh, a weekend now and then but never a trip with the kids and me seeing the world outside our window as we cruise on down the road. People, take it from me...go when you can and don't let anyone stop you!

Now, you know I take a lot of road trips...drive in, unpack, set up, pack, drive out kinda trips and I do short trips with my Posse, girl weekends and that sort of thing but NEVER Cecil and I together on the road. We went to see Charlene once for her birthday but that was before Nate was born and he is 29 now. (*EDIT: Opps! Sorry Char, I guess Nathan was born but stayed home with his Nana...didn't mean to age you that much.)

Are you tingling in anticipation? Hah! We are going to Dallas for a quick overnite stay with my Pop then to Nashville for Nathan to see his buddy Jake (he misses him terribly). Nate will stay there after our four day stay and then Cec and I are off to South Carolina to see my folks and my bro and sis-in-law!!! I am soooo 'cited. Of course, the beads and jewelry are not forgotten. I am doing two trunk/home shows, one in Nashville, one in S. Carolina. Gotta pay expenses you know and it will give them all a chance to see what I am doing up close and personal. Yippeee!

It is a long haul, days of hard driving but I am so ready for this. Of course, made longer by my need to hit every rest stop from here to there. (Old age is creeping...)

We will be gone for fourteen days and thanks to Cactus Mary, my buddy who makes the soap, Yogi, Annie (our dogs) and Sky (my budgie) will have a good care-taker.

It's all set...more on this as it develops, concludes and pictures too.

BeadWitched, BeadDazzled & BeadWildered

Tucson is an assault on one's senses. Everywhere you look tents, tents and more tents, buildings, motels and hotels all filled with the treasures of our earth and some not of this earth. The largest metorite in the world was there looking mostly like a giagantic potato...it was not pretty but could be filled with peridot crystals but who will open it? Too valuable...so it sits like a giant spud inspiring awe, I guess, I only saw a picture on their local news and a magazine.

Not for me for you see, I have a chronic and fatal disease (you will die with it)...BEADiTis. Once you have it, there is no cure. I like the rocks (I still gather them occasionally, like eggs) and the fossils fascinate me but BEADS...that is another story. When you catch BEADiTis it tends to take over your life, not to mention every nook and cranny of your abode. They roll around the floor, fill tables and sometimes end up in the most oddly of places.

In the mass of the shows (mostly wholesale for artists, rockshops, collectors and designers) there are 6 shows just for beads and I don't mean little shows either. And now, years since I started coming to Tucson to do my buying, most all the vendors in the others shows sell beads. It is like a giant BEAD flea market, gallery, nonstop shop. There is an area just for the Africans and their arts and crafts but mostly...BEADS!


I must say that I had a very good time for I was not really looking forward to the show this year what with the arthritis/fibro thingee. I had fun, fun, fun and felt pretty fair for most of the time. Took plenty of breaks, drank my water, ate reasonably and watched the people...a ton of people.

You could tell the northerners, they basked in the sun like gila monsters while I sought out the shade for relief. Those self same people ooohed and ahhhed over the sunsets and the sunrises for there is nothing like those colors and skies of the southwest, or so I have been told and I truly believe it. I took one of my breaks to watch a beautiful sunset show and Richard (master beadmaker from Phar Lepht and one of the tribe) joined me outside and wistfully said, "I wish I could capture those colors in a bead..." When I noted that I had one of his that I likened to the colors..."not like that, but I am still trying..."


Janice and Robyn are great traveling companions. They both make me laugh, a lot. Poor Jan went at a gallup the whole time and worried me a bit. She refused to slow down and suffered some but I know she had a good time. Rob is a soul mate of mine and we can get on the same wavelength easily. She was BEADazzeled too and keep noting that she really didn't NEED all these beads but alas, she has BEADiTis too.

While in Tucson, I had a lovely visit with long-time friend Charlene and her sisters, Helen and Carol. (Notice, I said 'long-time' and not 'old' Char! Hah!) She came and picked me up at our hotel, wined and dined me and shared much love and laughter. I had a wonderful evening at their home. It was a wonderful break from the BEADiTis but of course we talked about jewelry too!

About the images, they are large and will take some time to load, excuse me but I wanted to give you a good sample of what jumped in my bag. The only pieces I purchased just for myself was the small turquoise and ivory colored lampworked boot in the first picture and a painted horse from the same artist, Whim Wham beads which is on order. It cost me a pretty penny but it was irrestible for after all I have a bad case of BEADiTis and my reserve was admirable.

That's it in a beadshell...as friend Jam said, It must be like Bead Mecca and I did go and circle the stones.

Peace