What I did on my summer vacation...

The summer seems to have disappeared and I spent most of it hiding indoors trying to avoid the oppressive heat.  The last two weeks have been heaven.  We've been able to open the windows and doors and enjoy the fresh air.

I thought I had blogged more...LOL.  Guess not.  So now I will do a report on what I did on my "summer vacation".

Soon after Bead and Button, Cris and I headed down to the PMC conference in Kentucky.  It was great to meet up with people that I had only know on Facebook and to catch up with old friends.  I didn't take enough pics but here are some of the ones I have.

Katie and Elizabeth 

Cris and I...I think someone called us "The Twins" 

Donna, Kim and Trish

 

Trish with Cris and I

 

Late in July my nephew Matt got married to Teresa. The weather broke that day and we had great weather.  It was a pretty wedding overlooking Lake Erie.

 

Matt and Teresa 

 Dave and Mom

Ed and Mom

 

My niece, Jenny, and her husband Chris

 

I love a wedding where you can go barefoot!!

 

I played with fast fire bronze....I know...I'm late to the party on that one.  I just haven't been able to make it work.  So I ran lots of test fire pieces.  I haven't found one temperature where I can get all the pieces in the kiln to sinter.  Either it sinters in the back and not in the front or it sinters in the front and bubbles up on the back.  Yikes.  So I'll continue to work at it.  I do have some of the new Goldie Bronze from Europe.  Hopefully I will get a change to work with that soon.

 

More later....I'm only half way through the summer...LOL.

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The work week from HELL!!

I'm so glad the week is over. I prepared the 2013 operating budgets this week.  It's usually a 2 week process but this time I had grants to submit at the same time....four grants worth $2 million each and a $11 millon operating budget.  Good thing I like to work with numbers. Budgets aren't so bad except when you have to predict the spending patters of 14 different labs with multiple grants, all with different fiscal years.  But I was able to finish it off today.  After it was done I turned on my music and cleaned my office...which I destroyed just as badly as I do my jewlery bench. 

I think I look pretty good considering how stressful the week was............

At the same time, Cris and I were submitting classes for Bead and Button.  Five classes this year.  Etching, fabrication and metal clay.  Everything was due this week too!!  But that's all done.  Now we just wait to hear if we get accepted. 

My next deadline is at the end of the month.  I will be in an exhibit at the South Wing Gallery in Cleveland Heights.  I need 12-14 pieces...and of course I want to make new pieces.  I have this great collection of beads and stones and I want to make the next step in evolving my work by incorporating more of these into my pieces. Evolution takes concentrated time so I"ll be spending all my nights in the studio for the next few weeks.

These are some of the stones I want to work with....

So much to do....so little time.  Were is my winning lottery ticket when I need one????
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