More new stuff...

Actually, some of it is old but it is so much fun to see them in bulk! Here is the sun plaque and some of the skull charms...

And the winner is....

Me! No really! Lynn of Expedition D worked out a trade with me! Yippie! And I feel like a winner! I've been eyeing these pieces in her etsy shop for a while and NOW THEY ARE MINE!!! I hope to play with them this weekend. The beautiful rings are double sided and have a different pattern on each side. Beauties!



But then there is the giveaway winner....

Thanks for leaving comments about a yin/yang moment... The random integer generator picked 2! Congrats to Anne! Don't worry Carlene, I'll put an extra goodie in with your order!

Her early works...

Some day she will have these (if she can pry them away from me!) and hopefully remember the fun she had "working with mama". She sits with me while I'm working, telling me "Oh, such pretty beads, mama!" I give her a lump of clay and she mashes and molds it, sometimes asking for help but usually happy with her own ability and ideas. I stay out of the way and just admire. The pure joy and focus of a 3 year old is infectious. I try to relax when her little hands wander away from her work and into mine. It is all beauty. Pure joy and beauty...

Have your cake...

Saturday was a fun pool party for our big girls big 03! I can't hardly believe it! Where does the time go? Where did my baby go? She is so big and so capable and so..... mischievous!

Yes! I can reach the birthday cake on the top shelf of the refrigerator!! AND sneak it into the living room while dad is talking to grandpa! AND play with it! Wheee!



The dog is patient. Very, very patient. "Go. Play my child. The cake will be mine! Wahhh haaa haa!"

Starman: Giveaway Monday Returns!

Each firing seems to have a different soundtrack. This months firing was imbued with a dose of the all mighty David Bowie. We were, in our youth, lucky enough to stay up all night waiting outside of our local Music Plus store for tickets to his Glass Spider tour. Geeeeezzzz! That was a million years ago (1987 to be exact). Another life time. We certainly were different people. I remember enjoying the theatrics of the stage show but not enjoying the theatrics of the people jacked up on what ever behind us. We were such good kids, really. It was definitely a yin/yang day!





Is there a moment from your past that had a good and bad, yin and yang that was memorable? Leave a comment and I'll pick a winner on friday!

From the firing...

Distracted.

We have been so busy around here what with the getting back to school (my big boy started 2nd grade this week! AHHHH!) and working as the secretary for my daughters co-op preschool and the monthly firing and the new pendants and... and, and the water park! Ahhhh! And trying to cram all the Summer fun in before Summer moves into Fall. It is darn tiring! I'm watching the email and mail for signs of my most recent projects getting accepted or not. Thinking up new ideas for future submissions. Waiting impatiently for the copies of magazines that have accepted submission... The list seems endless and all I want to do is watch LOST. You heard me. LOST. It looked good from the get go and yet I never followed up on it. Never bothered to pop a tape in the old VCR. And now, Thanks to Joelle (SHHNAGA-FRAGA Grumble!) We are indeed addicted. We hurried through season one and are onto season 2 (Leap of faith????!?!? Don't push the dang button! It's a bigger leap of faith!!!!) It is the most fun we have had in front of the boob tube in ages! Having said all that, I'd better get this place in order and get my packages shipped on out so we can have an all weekend marathon of LOST! Oh, wait! My little one is having her 3rd birthday Saturday. (SHHNAGA-FRAGA Grumble!) Priorities.



Another new thing to look forward to opening the kiln for! Happy Friday all!

Bead Celebrity!

Joelle and I have been planning to visit the Pasadena Bead Show for over a month! This last Sunday was the day! With no kids in sight and unintentionally small coffee drinks in hand (curse you Starbucks for your wonky serving sizes!) we set off on a 85 mile journey with cash in pocket and the sparkle of beads in our eyes. I had found out that the FABULOUS Green Girl Studio's would be there only a few days before the show and I knew where a majority of my budget would be spent! We were hoping to meet the whole studio family. We arrived in no time flat, thanks I think to such high gas prices, the traffic was light. We registered and utilized our handy map to locate the booth in question. WE WERE CLOSE! There it was in all it's glittery splendor, The Green Girl Studio's booth! Miniature works of art that we could buy! We got to see the amazing one-of-a-kind bezels and were in awe! Greg was on hand to help us and was as sweet as pie. We were a bit star struck! We giggled like school girls and our palms turned sweaty when we layed eyes on the smorgasbord of pendants, beads and buttons! My voice my falter for the remainder of this post.... THEY HAD NEW ITEMS NOT SEEN BY OUR EYES!!!! I've had my eye on and I've added the Fandango charm to my checkout basket at their website no less then 3 times only to get distracted away from the computer... Well HE'S MINE NOW BABY! I have the perfect plan for him involving a certain Pandora's Box pendant! I think we were freaking out our bead pimp er, I mean bead facilitator Greg, so we paid for our treasure trove and as we were hogging the whole table we decided, hesitantly, to move on. Another Bead Celebrity we got to see was Allene, of Allene's Beads!



She looked wonderful and treated us to a tour of here wonderful table. A beautiful mix of ceramic and glass bead artist. I couldn't wait to get my hands of some amazing Golem Studio Beads. It was exciting to see my own basket of pendants on display! We wandered, kid-less, with coffee drinks and amazing beads, jewelry, hats and art to see. It was perfection!

Here is the loot....



Stay tuned for the kiln unload and creations from the loot!

There Was Thunder & Lightning!!!

It was an amazing storm! We get such little in the way of real weather, but last night was a doozy! At 2:30 in the morning it started! Thunder and lighting! We all cuddled up in bed and listened and watched. The sky was on fire! KABOOM! SIZZLE! CRACK! It went on for over an hour and it POURED rain! Much needed rain! It was a truly wonderful event!

I had a request that Orville have a little friend... So, here is "Clementine" she is a fancy pig!



Thanks Pamela for sharing the music in your air! Send me an email to (gaea(at)ojai(dot)net) and I will send you a ceramic goodie!

Ok! Enough of my procrastinating! Off to work! Happy Friday!

Whooo's That Girl?

Who is this girl? She seems so familiar and yet so new. Am I crazy or have you seen her somewhere before? She looks very owl like but truth be told she started out to be more of an ocean/fish goddess. Aphrodite to be exact... born of ocean spray and looking more like these sketches.... I may have to scratch this and start over.... Maybe it is the whole owl obsession that is going around. They are quite beautiful.



This is Gaea. She looks a bit masculine, which I like. She showed up on the page as a coin but came out of the clay entirely different. Hmmm....





Original sketch.

White Rabbit

Things have piled up again. It must be getting close to the mid month firing! Of course ALL I want to do in play and have fun. I do have fun things planned with all the beaded links I've created. I may be submitting them to a magazine so I won't be able to reveal them in full... And I haven't forgotten about the whole "Chaos" thing...

My good friend Dean has kept an ear out for us, musically speaking, for years. As a huge music fan, he always seems to be in the know and will share some of his music finds with us. He had sent us "White Rabbits" some time ago and we TOTALLY LOVE IT! Then he sent us "Fleet Foxes" and we've been warming up to it slowly but surely. We are always thankful for fun new music...





If you care to share,
a note or bar,
of music in your air,
a gift of clay,
I might share...

New stuff!

I finally got to take some photos of some new jewelry....



Falling leaf pendants in cerulean on chocolate with garnets.



Green patina hoops with labradorite.



Mr. Sour Puss necklace.



Orville necklace.

Oh Dear!

We had such a good time with our friends Madeline and Yvonne at the fair. I didn't think my back would hold but it did! We didn't see all we wanted but their company was so great, it didn't matter. I will let the pictures do the talkin'!



How excited does she look?



Gotta have the "rabbit ears"!



She looks terrified but laughed more and wanted to go on the dang thing again!



Thanks for all your inspiring comments! This weeks winner is... Jennifer Stumpf!

Is it Friday already?

We are off to the fair this morning! So all else must wait. Hopefully I'll have some fun pics and a winner picked for the giveaway this evening! Happy Friday all! XO

Giveaway Tuesday... Another Monday Flies By!

Yet another Monday whizzes by and I noticed that there are only 2 weeks left of summer until school starts. Where does the time go? I've had all these grand plans of beach trips and fair outings. I guess we'd better get on that! I remember loving the Renaissance faire when I was a kid. The costumes, entertainment and food were great! Sadly our local faire was kicked off the land it had been using since my Mom was a kid (so they could build fancy upscale new houses) and had to move to far off lands (the icky desert!) Such is life. So. Tell me... what is your favorite summer outing? The time you went to the lake with friends? Spent all day in the movie theater watching the latest flicks? Leave a comment and there could be a fun pendant for ya! I'll pick a winner Friday!

A poem.

I eat my peas with honey,
I've done it all my life,
It may taste kind of funny,
but it keeps them on the knife...

I remember reading that poem when I was a kid. How could you forget it? I don't remember where I read it but It always stuck with me!

We did our weekly Trader Joe's trek. To simplify and not make our selves nutty, I ran in and Robert hung in the car with kids, toys and music. I love Trader Joe's, but seriously, I think we are becoming their guinea pigs. Lightly salted, crunch, fried green beans? Yeck! Not my thing. And just to keep us on our toes, the car battery died. So we chatted up the gal parked next to us in the (dare I say it?) cool Ford Escape Hybrid. It was the third we'd seen in an hour. Luckily the tow truck guy "Doc-W" as it said on his coverall got to us quick and sent us on our way. Thanks Doc!

Clementine would like the green beans...



When we got home "Nim's Island" was waiting for us, a gift from Grandpa! A GREAT MOVIE! Fun for the whole family! I just loved every minute!

The Exchange at...

Jennifer Stumpf has gotten her talented hands on the project! She added some of her love to it... Check it out!

F-f-f-Friday!!!

I nearly missed it! This is so typical of me. I wrote the date on the calendar. I circled it. I even gave myself a few days extra. But that didn't stop me from nearly missing the deadline! Apparently what is in my head is more correct than looking on a calendar page. I have been working feverishly to get some jewelry together to submit to a publication. I read and re read their instructions. I wrote the date down and then for no good reason thought the due date was mid month! Luckily I emailed the editor and inquired, kindly, if the due date meant postmark or in hand. YAY! POSTMARK! WHoo hooo! So I jammed to the P.O. and got it in the mail! What a liberating feeling! We celebrated with a swim at Grandmas and dinner!

I used the random number thingy and it gave me #3! LLYYNN is this weeks winner! Please send me your address (gaeaojainet) and I'll get you your lotus pendant!