Rainy Tuesday....

So much for the 'summer' weather we've been having....back to normal today. Got the acceptance for the Hathaway Brown Show in Shaker Heights in June. It's the week before the Toledo Crosby Park show so I need to be shaking my tail feathers (sorry, Sugar) especially since I'm going to Arizona late in May and the Bead & Button Show in Milwaukee the first week of June. I need a "bead fairy" to help...lol.

I am worried about how the shows will go this year...it's painful to think of all the stress on the artists I know (me included). I read a discussion recently that really hurt my feelings. It was a criticism of artists complaining about this being 'hard times'. The implication was that we should have had "REAL JOBS" to begin with...sigh. Most artists I know work incredibly long hours..nevermind that we can't get unemployment benefits, retirement benefits, decent health care costs, etc. Can't think of any of us who will get a small business "stimulus package".

Yes, I chose to make my way as an artist and have never regretted it, despite the 'feast and famine' aspect. After finding out I had the cancers, I spent quite a few middle of the night hours reflecting on my life. I decided that if it turned out badly, I still felt I was fortunate to have been able to work at something I truly loved, hopefully leaving the world a tiny bit nicer with what I created over the years. Art has given me the chance to go wonderful places and meet some great people. Yes, I would be pissed if it ended sooner than expected, but all in all, it's been a good run so far.

Didn't expect to be so philosophical this morning!

The Divine Miz Sugar.......

Since you can't see him too well in the full photo, here he is alone. Lampworked bead is by Wayne Robbins.

Post of "Emerging Frog" necklace that I finally got around to photographing.

Milde Monday

I have spent the last FIVE days putting beads away and "organizing" (LOL!!!!) my storage for them. Have a bad habit of amassing trays and trays of leftovers from finished projects. There are some beads that I must really, really like since I find there are multiple tubes or strands of the same bead. (senior moments at the bead shows? who me? Naaah......)

Did take a break yesterday to send out my first newsletter...not as easy as I had thought it would be. For those who got it..be patient, I hope to improve.

Radiation treatments ended last Tuesday...huzzah!! Now I just have to see one or the other of the doctors every 3 months forever. I liked the staff in the radiation/oncology dept. but hope to never see them again...lol.

Started a new cuff bracelet this morning but have to put it aside to take Sugar to the Bird Farm for her monthly beak and claw trim. She enjoys that about as much as I like going to the dentist. Found a small piece of cheese on the counter that I forgot to give her last night...granted it was a bit dried out but she's so crazy about cheese I thought it wouldn't matter. She took it, looked at it, looked at me and threw it out of her cage. Sort of like the time I gave her some Jello.

More Milde than Wilde Sunday

I seem to be having one of those mornings when I can't get away from wandering around the internet. Yesterday I bought an issue of Art Doll Quarterly at the bookstore and once again feel drawn to start exploring this media. Just what I need, another creative adventure...sigh. Beaded doll? Needle felted doll? Polymer clay doll? Geez....how do you decide? So I've been going from site to site and drooling over all the examples of dollmaking.

Sugar appears to have new neighbors in the little crabapple tree outside her window. The robins moved in first but the male apparently got tired of banging his head against his own reflection in the window and they moved on. Now it appears that we have little sparrows busily adding new "stuff" to the old nest from last year. Sugar is not amused.