Merry Christmas!!

Christmas is almost here, I have run myself silly and still have a million things to do. I haven't gotten gifts wrapped but I have finished grocery shopping. We have so much food in the house I had to bring the cooler upstairs and store some of the extra stuff in it. All the boys (and girls) will be here and the house will be full. That's all I need for Christmas.

I saw a young father on television a few weeks ago, who was at the unemployment office signing up. He had gotten laid off and was so upset that he laid his head on the table and cried during the interview. He and his wife had 2 young children. It tore me apart. No one should go without at any time of the year. I have tried to be as generous as possible with charities especially this year. So many people are out of work already, Christmas presents don't really seem that important to me.

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and hope that you enjoy spending time with your family and friends.

You Never Know

This weekend I was one of the vendors at the Two Rivers Mansion Open House hosted by the gracious Stones River Women's Club. I was invited by my neighbor who is a member of the club. This was my first time there so I wasn't sure what to expect. Several vendors were no-shows, so there were only 4 of us on the 2nd floor of this fabulous 1850's mansion. I don't think I have ever met so many nice people at an event, which was the smallest I had been to this year but well attended. I sold more stained glass this weekend than I have all year. Several of my more expensive pieces sold this weekend. And I discovered that I have been targeting the wrong age group. My daughter-in-law helped me Saturday, which was really special. When she married my son, their wedding reception was held at the Two Rivers Mansion (see the photo), so we both loved being there again.

The downstairs parlors and main hallway were decorated by local florists. They were serving punch or hot spiced tea and cookies in the dining room. The upstairs vendors got the broken cookies and they didn't last long! I had so much fun and have been invited back next year.

Reflections of My Life

I just heard that song by Marmalade and it seems relevant to the thoughts that I always have as the year ends. This year has been a wild ride. Some crazy stuff has happened. Like twisting an ankle chasing a dog, falling and ending up having surgery. Of course, ignoring the injury and continuing to plant 24 (5 gallon) shrubs and shoveling 2 trailer loads of mulch didn't help, either. My very first surgery. But the recovery was quick, but it did teach me that taking a break is an option. I don't have to do everything right now, this minute. I truly enjoyed the summer because I did slow down. And I did get the front yard re-landscaped, all by myself.

There were frustrations - the jet ski still doesn't run right even after $300 worth of repairs. We had some successes - our house is now paid in full! We had our physicals and are healthy. That is a relief! Something to look forward to - I found a new site to sell my stained glass on, Artfire, which is shaping up to be very promising. In 6 months we will be debt free. Dave Ramsey will be proud. Married for 35 years, now that's a milestone!

All in all, this year hasn't been bad, even with the recession. I'm a friggin' genius because I said a year ago we were in a recession! But, I am truly thankful for what we have. We have worked hard for a long time. And even though our boys have gone their separate ways, we are still close. It's been a pretty good year. And I feel very fortunate.

Merry Christmas!!

I'm Featured Artist!

I am this month's featured artist on the Creative Glass Guild of Etsy's website, http://cgge.org/spotlight.aspx which is pretty cool.

Today I signed up as a verified member of ArtFire. My URL is http://glassfancy.artfire.com/ and I am very optimistic about it. It is a well put together site, easy to navigate, the search works and best of all - administrators listen and respond to your questions or problems. I love it! ArtFire is new, but it's learned from other ecommerce sites' mistakes.

New Listing, Already Sold

I had made several stained glass business card holders in some textured glass in great colors recently. I listed a pretty blue one Tuesday afternoon and it sold in about an hour. The green one has been listed but I've still got 3 more. Maybe I'm on to something.....

Christmas Shopping

Today I officially started Christmas shopping. I have been looking for the Wii Fit Bundle locally, but every time I saw it advertised somewhere, they were sold out the next day. I got lucky and Target still had 3 and it was cheaper than eBay even. That was my difficult gift this year, now I am relieved.

I have been watching several Cardinals come around every afternoon around 4:30 to check out the birdfeeders. They are my favorite birds, very elegant and always stay in groups. I think I'm going to make myself a Cardinal suncatcher for my window. I haven't made anything for myself lately and it's about time I did.

Heading Home

I am still in Elizabethtown, KY as I type this. My visit with my youngest son has been wonderful as usual. The Glendale Crossing Festival on Saturday was well attended, but people were not buying much. I did ok. Food vendors were doing well, but even the vendors who had been there for years said they didn't sell as much this year. The poor economy has definitely got people pinching pennies.

It has been worth it to spend time with Daryl. He's got a black lab puppy he named Pepper. So I guess I have a new grand-doggie. She is adorable.

Herb Garden

I have had a small herb garden for four years. I only planted what I knew I'd use. I have rosemary, chives, dill, oregano, thyme, basil and sage. I planted it right in the middle of our vegetable garden and have used it regularly. There is nothing like fresh rosemary and oregano marinade on grilled chicken. My sage plant was several years old and met an untimely demise being trampled by a neighbor's horse of a dog. Today I went and bought 2 new sage plants, some lemon thyme and Greek oregano. I trimmed back the existing plants and planted my new ones. I also planted some garlic. It takes awhile to mature, but well worth the wait. I had to replace the sage. What would Thanksgiving be like without fresh sage in the dressing?

There were some decent sized green tomatoes left in the garden, so I picked four for fried green tomatoes tonight with our dirty rice. And then again this Saturday, when I'm in Kentucky for the Glendale Crossing Festival, I can get a plate of fried green tomatoes from the Whistle Stop Cafe!

I Won! I Won!

The Chainmailler's Guild of Etsy recently had a contest on their blog called Linked to the Sea at http://chainmaillersguild.blogspot.com/ and I voted for my favorite. It was a difficult decision because I love chainmaille and there were a lot of beautiful entries to choose from. There was a drawing from the voters and I won a fabulous chainmaille cross keychain made by C&T Designs. I love it!

Rain

It is raining today. For the first time in quite awhile. It was getting old dragging the hose and sprinkler around the yard. The grass is pretty much gone, so is the garden. I did manage to get some bell peppers to freeze this year and there are still a few hanging on. I think there are enough green tomatoes for a nice plate of fried green tomatoes. Today is a good day for rain. I need to get in my studio and make more suncatchers to take to the Glendale Crossing Festival in Kentucky next weekend. My fingertips are cut to shreds and my fingernails are ground to nubs, but I'm keeping up the pace.

I Love Surprises!

Our yard is full of flowering plants and shrubs that I have planted over the years. The other day I saw a cluster of spider lilies that had popped up in the flower bed by the sidewalk. I had totally forgotten about them because they don't have leaves and only bloom in late August or early September. My grandmother used to have them and I always thought they were pretty. They are hard to find now and not cheap, but they multiply quickly so it's definitely worth it. I had even forgotten I had stuck some of the bulbs out in the bed by the mailbox when I relandscaped this spring.

I'm Camera Shy

Not really, I'm usually the one behind the camera taking the pictures. Last weekend when I visited my youngest son in Kentucky, that wasn't the case for a change. This is the only one I'm not embarrassed to show. FYI-I'm the one on the left!

Proud of myself

After my hard drive failed on my laptop early this year, I have been paranoid about losing all my pictures, music (I had uploaded all our CD's onto my media player) and documents once again. Our youngest son is the computer nerd in the family and talked me into buying an external hard drive. I bought it last month and have been afraid that I wouldn't be able to figure it out. Last night I decided I would get it over with. It took 5 hours, but I got everything I wanted to keep safely backed up.

When Daryl was in town last weekend he told me that I knew a lot more about computers than I thought I did and that I knew more than him in some areas. How'd that happen?

From the Glass Anarchy Garden

Glass Anarchy has launched our latest range of garden glass. The anarchists have put together a range of glass inspired by or for your garden. The colors found in natural plant forms are so vibrant and luscious that they are a brilliant source of inspiration for glass artists. Glass Anarchy invites you to browse our own Glass Garden and treat yourself to a quality glass gift.
From hibiscus to daisies, butterflies and bees, Glass Anarchy has a range of beautiful pendants, earrings and more designed to delight the discerning customer.

Glass Anarchy is a group of glass artists who like to challenge themselves. We think a little left of center and love to try new designs and techniques. All are accomplished artists in their particular type of glass work, and feel a need to push ourselves to the limits. This need has created an atmosphere of encouragement for each other.

Here is the link to the Glass Anarchy colors from the garden:http://www.glassanarchy.com/Defaultgarden.aspx

Not Very Practical, But Fun

We have always been hotrodders and I guess we always will be. Sitting in our garage right now is this gorgeous 1955 Chevy. It's sitting there for two reasons: no air conditioning and it only gets about 10 miles per gallon of gas. I still love it though. And I will start driving it around close to home again when it cools off a bit. I don't think people expect a little, middle aged woman to get out of that car.

My Boys

I've been slowly reloading some pictures back onto my computer. When my hard drive crashed in February I had a lot of family pictures that I had scanned. It is a pain to have to scan them again, but it can be done. Luckily I have a disk of the wedding pictures and some were on Flickr.

I came across one of my favorite pictures of our boys that was taken 2 1/2 years ago when the oldest got married. All I can say is, what a nice looking group of guys!

Butterflies in the Garden

Since I have been making stained glass suncatchers, I have made some on copper stakes to put in my flower garden and pots. I have birds, flowers, rabbits and butterflies. Recently I made two 3D butterflies and listed them on Etsy. The blue butterfly is the most awesome shade of blue, like the sky on one of those absolutely crystal clear days. The other butterfly is orange with streaks of yellow that shows up beautifully in strong light. Plant stakes look especially nice in green plants. I keep some in my houseplants all winter.

Vegetable Garden

The garden is finally starting to look like a garden. I was checking the squash and cucumbers yesterday and there are quite a few that are about 2 inches long by now. There are a few eggplants that are about the size of a ping pong ball and we've already started picking some of the grape tomatoes. I planted extra tomato plants this year for fried green tomatoes. We'll have some tomatoes and bell peppers soon. The resident rabbit has stripped the broccoli, but it's just about too hot for it to produce now anyway.

Produce prices are ridiculous at the grocery store and the Farmer's Market is far enough away that it's not practical to go very often. I think at this rate our garden is going to get larger every year.

Smell that Mimosa!

Our Mimosa tree started blooming last weekend. Since the rain yesterday the blooms have really come out. We were sitting on the deck this evening and it smelled fantastic! It is right behind the patio beside the pool, so you smell it the whole time. My youngest son and I planted it in 1991. It was just a twig about a foot tall that I paid a dollar for. We never dreamed it would end up becoming such a beautiful tree.

Something Different

I've been bored with the same old same old stained glass patterns for awhile. I have been using a lot of bevels and just recently bought some glass roundels to experiment with. Some of the fusers in the Creative Glass Guild of Etsy were discussing pot melts in the forums and had been posting pictures of the results. Needless to say, I had to have pot melts to play with. Papernclay, a fellow CGGE and Glass Anarchy member, was nice enough to make some for me. Let me just say that photos do not do justice to them. They are gorgeous!

I have made a suncatcher with a pot melt and I am very happy with the way it turned out. I didn't use a pattern either, so this is definitely one of a kind. This sort of represents what the Glass Anarchy is all about - something different. All of us are just a bit out in left field and willing to try anything once.

Collaboration

Recently I was approached by a fellow Etsy and Creative Glass Guild member, Smokeylady54, who asked me to make a pendant for her so she could make a necklace out of it. Since I do stained glass, I was a bit hesitant at first, but I realized I could do something with some old screw back earrings from the 60's that I had found in a box of old costume jewelry. I used some scrap glass that had a pebbled texture to surround the earring disk. Smokey has quite an eye for matching colors. Her lampworked beads are breathtaking and the necklace is absolutely beautiful. Here is the link: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=12440653 see if you agree with me.

A Beautiful Pendant

Before I started my blog, I had Catlady99, another Etsy artist and fellow Creative Glass Guild Member make me a lampwork iris pendant. It turned out gorgeous! I get compliments on it whenever I wear it.

She has some beautiful necklaces and bracelets in her shop right now. http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5053222

She has another iris pendant and also makes the most adorable lampwork angels. I've never seen any like them.

My Babies

I have been watching a robin's nest in the weeping cherry tree in the front yard. She watches me while I cut the grass or while working in the nearby flower beds. I saw her catching worms so I knew she was feeding her babies. She doesn't mind me taking photos, I don't get too close. There are 4 big healthy babies that are growing noticeably every day. Their flight feathers are beginning to grow and it won't be long until they will be trying them out. I love those big mouths!

One of my favorite panels

This turned out to be one of my favorite panels. It was a custom order for a lawyer who plays drums as a hobby. I wanted to give it some dimensional detail, so I made the drum stands out of copper wire and soldered them on top of the glass. And I got to use that piece of white ring mottle glass I had left over from a window.

It's About Time!

Two years ago I had bought a collection of irises from Schriener's. They were just beginning to bloom last spring when we had a hard freeze (unusual for Tennessee this late) and every single bloom was lost. This year they are making up for it. I had forgotten the colors and the tags with the colors dry rotted, so it has been a surprise every time another color blooms. I have brought in a stalk of each color and they smell heavenly!

Poison Ivy!

This shade garden looks great this year, but deceptively so. I was cleaning out some wild strawberries and hackberry seedlings and must have gotten into poison ivy. The underside of my left arm made pretty good contact, and it is still in the itchy stage. Liquid Bandage works pretty well until it starts peeling off.

My columbine has reseeded very well in this bed. My red trillium has mulitplied this year, but my pink bleeding heart didn't come up. There are 2 lavender azaleas that I just planted to replace the old ones that died due to the drought last year. My 5 goldfish survived the winter in the pond. One is pretty fat, so I'm hoping for babies!

I have spent the last week planting the garden and shrubs and opening the pool. I am dog tired at the end of the day, but I really don't care. I am thrilled to be outdoors and doing what I love. Poison ivy won't stop me.

Planting Shrubs

We finally were able to go to McMinnville to buy shrubs on Saturday. It was worth the 60 mile drive. We got everything we wanted and by buying directly from the growers, we saved ourselves several hundred dollars. I was really excited to get Encore Azaleas in 3 gallon pots. Locally I could only find them in 1 gallon. I got the fragrant Viburnums I wanted, too. We found one grower who specialized in annuals and we got 2 flats of some pretty unique plants. My muscles are sore from digging holes. It's going to take awhile to get all 25 shrubs planted.

Spring Planting

Spring is finally here! I bought a flat of Calibrachoa (Million Bells) for hanging baskets. I also bought some Better Boy and Early Girl tomato plants, bell pepper plants and some annual herbs. Our garden hasn't been tilled yet, but I can't wait to try out the new mini-tiller we bought. I plan on expanding the garden this year to include eggplant, yellow crookneck squash and Italian green beans.

My pink tree peony has lots of buds ready to bloom. Hopefully they will get to bloom this year. Last spring we had a hard freeze in late April and it ruined all my peonies and irises. After the drought last year, I was afraid that there wouldn't be many blooms, but so far it has been beautiful and lush.

I have been enjoying getting my hands into the dirt. I have transplanted several azaleas and rhododendrons from our front yard to the shade under the oak trees so we can redo the front yard. My muscles ache from digging up shrubs, but I am extremely happy to be outdoors and gardening.