Where Are YOU?

I have a website that helps me track my blog viewers and other information. www.statcounter.com

So what I would like to know...is where do you live?

Please comment and let me know. It's exciting to see how spread out we all are.
Looking forward to hearing from you....

Show Off Your ART

It feels like "pillow week" around here, but there was one other that I wanted to show you.

This pillow was made by Gerry White, our SE Regional Director and owner of Beads by Design, where our Southern Flames group meets.

Gerry took photos from last year's Southern Flames postcard and made them into fabric iron on appliques and then she made a pillow around them.

That's my gnome in the bottom center of it- and I wasn't the winner on the bidding, but I sure loved seeing the results.

Glass Casting Couch

Are you interested in glass casting?

I recently checked out this fun and informative website written by Gaffer Glass and think you might want to enjoy it too.

Pillows- Hooray!

Do you ever look at appliqued pillows for design inspiration?

I found a couple at Layla Grace's website, that I like a lot.

This one in particular has a great graphic design of three different flower choices.

The complementary color combination has always been a favorite of mine too.

Do you have favorite websites for this kind of inspiration? How about listing them in the comment section and sharing with us?

10 Year Old Glassblower

Ten year -old Theoren Hanks is a glassblowing kid whose parents decided to homeschool him so he could pursue his craft.

He's focused and commuting weekly from Sacramento to Public Glass in San Francisco.

You can read the entire article here. And visit Theoren's website here.

I bet there are a lot of us who wish we had found glass at such a young age. What a joy to see kids with passion and parents who support it.

My thanks to Mona who originally posted the article on facebook-you can find her Gaffer Glass website here.

Foja Mountain Frogs

Photographer Tim Laman shot some brilliant photos of frogs and other wildlife in remote New Guinea's Foja Mountains.

And National Geographic made them their photos of the month.

This one happens to be a Tree frog (Nyctimystes humeralis), but you'll see quite a variety in the photo series.

And looking at it from my glass and art perspective, what appealed to me is the fine texture on the skin, seeing their feet up close so my froggy toes look more correct when I make them and what really caught my eye, is their eyes. The cornea's brown "roadmap" pattern is very intriguing to me. That even by itself, looks like something I'd like to try in glass. The color, pattern and even how it looks encased. Hmmm, something new to ponder.

If you have ideas about it that you'd like to share, post away please! And otherwise, I'll see you here tomorrow!

Sparky's Home!

It's my birthday today. Yep, not the easiest thing to admit, but I'm really old.

And I really had only one wish for my birthday gift. I wanted my family to be all together for it. But that's a big wish, because my daughter, Sparky, seems to be traveling most of the year.

From working in Antarctica, to visiting New Zealand, Tasmania, Australia, Japan and then biking in Hawaii, she was gone about 9 months and just returned. The last time I had seen her was about last June.

Quite honestly, that's kind of hard on a Mom. So I am absolutely delighted that she's home. . Woohoo! The family is complete. Now all I want is a little cake (coconut, if I'm lucky) and ice cream and all is complete.

See you tomorrow...because the rest of today I'm celebrating!