MIX TAPE CHALLENGE!!!!!

Join in the trip down memory(ex) (get it memory/memorex) lane as we stroll down a road that for some of us needed some serious guard rails! That's right folks! It's a high school mix tape challenge! Sponsored by Heather over at Humblebeads! Nice! Er, Radical Dude! Oh. MI. GAWD! So "Pump up the Volume" and do a little chair dance to some of my H.S. faves! Thanks Heather! And head over to her blog to see the challenge rules and enter to win some awesome beads!

Who can't remember listening to to the Beastie Boy's "Brass Monkey" during driving class or dancing all night to "Pump Up The Volume"! I couldn't stop at just 5 favs so here are my 10 + 1! (see muzak player for song list!)

If you don't want to cry...

don't see Marley and Me. What? Too late for that is it? Those marketing people know what they are doing. It's the same way they got us to take the kids to see "Bridge to Tarabithia". I'm not saying they aren't great movies. I'm not saying that I'd not see them if they were more honest about the true weepy content they were hiding. Although they'd have a tougher job getting our asses into the seats if there was full disclosure. At least I can weep openly in the privacy of my own home. Not that the sight of me weeping openly in my kitchen would be a shock to anyone that knows me, but, seriously? Copious tears and lots of snot. I didn't say it was pretty. • Not so spoiler alert • Ok. I'll say it. THE DOG DIES. How did I trick myself into thinking otherwise would happen. Was it the cute blonde couple? Was it the cute blonde dog? They know where they can put their cute, funny blondness. If you have kids and have to watch movies in two to ten parts like we do at our house, when we resumed watching the next night it was like some hideous, back in the day Foldger's commercial. "Watch now as we replace their funny sweet movie with a gut wrenchingly sad story". Yah. We're a wreck over it. But go. Go and rent. Just don't forget the mop and bucket people. Mop! Bucket! I'm going to my happy place now....

Vacation!

We took our very first family vacation this easter weekend! IT WAS GREAT! We did the whole San Diego thing and in record time. Actually it was our first vacation since 1994! If you've not been to an amusement park lately be prepared to spend money like it's printed in your basement! Since we've not been out of the house in over a decade, you can only imagine what a shock it must have been for us! But we had such a great time it hardly matters! At Sea World, I cried like a baby during the Shamu show! Killer Whales are just amazing and it made me a bit sad that they are kept in captivity, though they surely live well and are protected. If I can figure out how to get the photos off of my antiquated digital camera I'll post some! I think the kids actually had the most fun in the hotel's swimming pool as it was quite the posh experience for us all. Cabanas, heated pool, and abundant towels!

In spite of my good intentions to bring work with me, and I did, it just didn't get as much done as I'd have liked. And you know what they say about a watched pot.... well, when I'd left on vacation I only had a handful of orders to wrangle but returned (thankfully!) to a pot over boiling! Thanks bead lovers! So now I'm in extreme catch up mode! Up early! Up late! I'm working really hard to get things out to you fabulous people in a timely fashion!

Here are some new sketches...



and some new earrings! I may have to turn into Frida Kahlo now....



I'm hoping to get some of my inspiration from our trip out on paper today!

Not quite right...

It is that time again! "Submission" time! With a flurry of activity in the studio I got all my pending packages in the mail and on time! Whoo Hoooo! It feels like I submitted about a million things to about a million magazines and I still managed to for get to send photos to submit some things. How did this bracelet not make it into the email? I create a list and yet it still got overlooked?



It's already gone through a bit of a redesign with a handmade clasp and some more dangly beads...


And yet sometimes things aren't accepted and I know before the verdict is in that they aren't up to muster....


Like this necklace...



"One Fine Day" is so much more of a Spring than a Fall. I've already started a redesign.


Or this one, which showed more promise from the sketch....



than the actual necklace that I made....



I think if I'd actually followed the "plan" it may have turned out better....

If it ain't broke...

Well, actually it is, so it will all need replacing of fixing! It seemed like one thing after another this week it has become comical at this point! First off our cars are older than dirt and covered with it. I just can't be bothered to clean a car when there are perfectly good beads to play with. So, our older that dirt cars both have maladies that let us limp around town but they haven't failed us yet and as I loathe to hand the mechanic over money I don't have, we'll keep on limping until absolutely necessary. One has a leaking radiator (if you see me around town with the hood up, I'm just adding coolant, give us a wave and keep on goin'! We'll be ok!) The other car has trouble shifting. It's an automatic. I hate an automatic. I could drive the s#%! out of a broken clutch though. But I digress. So, if you see or hear us ah-clunkin' through town, once again, give us a wave and we'll see ya later. I had to laugh out loud (total reflex response here) at the Mom who standing in front of my 1994 sedan parked in front of my son's school and was complaining loudly to another parent about her "old" 2003 car. It just slipped out! So now my dish washer decided that water was optional for cleaning. What ever. We found it used in front of a house that was being renovated. SCORE! That baby worked great for 2 years! Since we've not had the fortune of finding another this way we were forced to actually shop. And we lucked out big time by finding a floor model unit that was, get this... $1200. WTF!?! I didn't even know they made them for that much!? I don't get out much I guess. So it has a tiny baby dig in the door and was last years model. It was less than most of the lowest priced new ones. I have to say it does look like a diamond surrounded by filth in our little kitchen though. Time to start scrubbing! So there you have it. Us in all our falling apart glory! I'm not complaining. I just think these are the funny gems in life.
Here... look at this great mermaid picture my little three year old did for a party (ok, I helped with the words)...

Happy Monday All! XO Gaea

Free Shipping! No Foolin'!

I met my love 18 years ago on April 1st 1991! As an anniversary specail for all of us April Fools out there, shipping will be free on orders from $1 to $200 that will be shipped with in the continental U.S. from April 1st 2009 to April 6th 2009! And flat rate of $10 shipping on orders over $200. Happy April Fools! www.gaea.cc

The Flea Market...

I used to have a booth at our local flea market about every two months. Since my girl was born I've been, well, busy. But my friend Lynn called me a few weeks back and was wondering if we could share a booth. Lynn is a sculptor and teacher and she was my first ceramic teacher in college and she has some new tiles of her sculptures to display. It was a slow quiet day which was just fine with me as the company and conversation was so wonderful. Her ideas about life and women's rolls in our society are intriguing and reflected in her work. As we were talking I realized that we have known each other for 21 years. We talked about our families, politics, sex in our society, art. I had a great time. I hope we can do it again soon.

On a bead note I found these great glass beads by bead artist Tass Rupp. Her booth was 2 stalls down and her work is delish! I know a certain owl lovin' gal who will want to get her hands on some of these (Lorelei!). Sadly, my email to her bounced and I couldn't locate her etsy shop! Ugh!

Hair of the dog...

Not really. But I did have a hair adventure and I certainly feel drunk with love over my new hair cut! I'd heard rumours about this fantastic hair stylist in town. Little murmurs and whispers about this crazy Harley riding chick with a fantastic accent that cut hair from her groovy, green renovated school bus! My friend Geneva had her hair cut and it was fantastic! I just knew who was behind her great do! She handed me her stylists card which depicted a giant green bus sprawled across electric red leopard print on one side and the giant word "Sunny does hair" across the back! I was all over it! As my hair had not been cut in over two years, I decided now was the time! My friend Deina watched the kids and I had a whole hour to get my hair cut! It needed it! Sunny was funny and raucous. The inside of her traveling salon is covered in leopard print and has an turntable for music! Her stylist chair is placed in front of a big mirror. We chatted and laughed about life, men and women. And she cut. And cut. And cut.... and transformed my very long all one length hair into a layered choppy style...




Thanks Sunny!

Ohh la la!

I'm a stinker for smells if you know what I mean. Everything from our shampoo and conditioner to our coffee have to smell a certain way to be sure! What's the deciding factor about anything at our house? "HOW DOES IT SMELL?" So, If you can believe it, I had a free moment with out kids yesterday. I made a dash for my favorite coffee house and then took a quick stroll over to our local beauty supply. They have the cutest soaps and perfumes. My recent favorite LoLLia perfume was a gift to myself for Mothers Day last year. This year I have my eye on their new line of perfumes which are pretty budget friendly at $28. Although wanting to buy the entire line is a budget killer! Their newest (new to me at least! I don't get out much!) line is called ToykoMilk and have scents like Paper and Cotton, Let Them Eat Cake and my favorite... Kabuki! There were a few missing from the series that I didn't get to smell so I'll be back. The bottles are the cutest ever and have images of birds, butterflies, THE EIFFEL TOWER! Sadly their their "French Kiss" didn't draw me in, but OH! That bottle! And if there is a second deciding factor about something, it's the divine packaging that will win us over...

Moonbeam.

Due to technical errors (yes. I know how to rewind the video tape!!!!) we had missed an episode of Lost. So, being the junkies we are we went to the abc website and found that you can view the episodes for free!!! You can also have Sawyer give you a nickname! HA! So I followed guide and viola! I am "Moonbeam"! It actually fits me pretty well! So check it out... Lost

Data Head...

It is one of the things I just have to be in the mood to do. I've got to be "on fire" to do it actually or really inspired, or really embarrassed about the state of things. Or board. And It is all happening at once for me right now. I'm talking about web site upkeep and design. I LOVE a bit of good graphic design and I'm not the best graphic artist so I rely heavily on my dear heart to keep me focused and uncluttered in my design. I'd been updating the "Day of the Dead" pages of the website with more hand painted beads and color options and the dang thing kept crashing the program so that decided it for me! I have tooooo much on one page! It was too cluttered and I don't think people really knew just how many options and items there were. So I've split them up and given them a more space. It feels special again!



This is the new main "Day of the Dead" page. I've sectioned bits of it off as links to the various areas. Beads, Pendants, Charms and Connectors each have their own page now. I'm going to model this necklace/page link design on the rest of the site. I'm even thinking of asking for people to send me their projects that have used the pendants and give jewelry designers a bit of publicity as well as a bit of inspiration. It is in the beginning stages of design but thought I'd throw that idea out there. If you have an opinion about it please drop a comment in!

Winner, winner! Chicken dinner...

Ok. Not a chicken dinner but a bead. Oh! Maybe a chicken bead would be super cute...

So the Random Integer Picker thingy plucked the number 5 out! So congrats to Mellisa - Chinook Jewelry!! Send me your address and I'll send you a goodie!

And how cute is this...



My girl was playing with the clay when I was working and made this fantastic bead! I did the glazing but she molded and stamped it and put the hole in it! Too freaking cute! Then she strung it on a cord and is proudly wearing it!

Greeeeennnn!

Before having kids, I don't remember St. Patrick's Day being quite as much fun. The way they embrace all things green. The way they, depending on that kids personality, will help or be completely evil to the poor kid who forgot to wear todays sacred color. Most were sweet and some even brought extra "green" things for those who forgot. If they only knew how "pink" they were in their "greenness". So here is a little green for those of you who forgot...

Drink a green one for me!
Happy St. Patty's day!

Autumn Leaves Are Falling?

I know it sounds strange that we are not even into Spring yet and I'm thinking about Fall. But that's what happens when you are looking to submit to magazines. And I have some fall-ish plans for these beads and clasp sets. It's funny but I've only designed one project with one of the ceramic clasp sets. Go figure. I really love them and should use them more often... As for the "Tiny Acorn" and "Oak Leaf" beads, I am super excited about them! If they were a bit smaller I'd consider them for earrings (yet another jewelry form that could use more attention!) The charm versions of these are perfect for earrings though so I won't quibble.





So... What season do you love most? How do the seasons effect your designs? Leaf, er, leave a comment and I'll pick a name on Wednesday to win a seasonally appropriate charm or bead!

Bonjour!

I have to say there was a lot that came out of this last firing that I want to play with. I've pushed my next firing off by a few days so I"ll have time to just play. Time seems to be so tight lately and every minute I get to play with the beads is just delish! Sometimes old designs get a fresh take with a fun new coat of "paint" The Eiffel Tower pendant is one of my faves but didn't inspire much design wise, but I am totally feeling this hand painted version! And as much and the plain round beads are a design hoot, they needed something... I'm thinking of calling them "SOS" beads because of the dash dot pattern. Some have "X's" and "O's" so I may call them the "Hug/Kiss" beads.