holiday

I never thought, that my nervousness last week would
take a lot of energy out of me. I'm still recovering - so
tired these days. Good, that holiday has started. Even
if it's only for my boy, things can now go a bit slower.

A quick review of the last week in mixed order..

I wanted to show you the progress of the piece I'm
making for my guessing game, but I didn't have much
time to work on it. And as I wanted to work on it last
Sunday - eek! I broke the oval piece :(
Luckily I have some more rings and ovals around. This
time I decided to take the round one. On Wednesday I
finally had a bit time to attach the glass pieces onto it.
The idea has changed a bit. It's getting more romantic
and my son told me it reminds him of a dream catcher.
Indeed, it is kind of a dream catcher :)


As it's still not finish yet, I'm going to prolong the deadline
for entering the game to Monday, 3rd August. I'll announce
the winner on Tuesday. Please forgive my delay!

I finally hung some of my treasures. First I wanted to
hang everything on one wall, but it just didn't look right.
I tried some variants and finally I decided to go for a
vintage wall plaque and Gocco print combination. Ha!
They are all about animals and the color shades fit each
other too. I really love it :)


Soholm (a flea market find), Annarubyking (one of my
fave artists on Etsy and hey, she is Etsy's featured seller
at the moment!), Sugarloop (one of my very first purchases
on Etsy) and Burkart (another flea market find).

I hung them not without a reason. It's the room, where
my visitors are sleeping - our living room. Yes, my sister
and her family were here for two nights (so good to see
them again!) - so I took the chance to rearrange the room
to make it looks nicer ;)

I also had some fun cooking time. To welcome my guests
I've made some Pempek Palembang together with some
friends the day before (it was lots of fun - chatting, laughing,
cooking and eating). And for the dinner before my guests
went back home I've cooked stuffed peppers for my niece
as requested (and filled also a big zucchini from the garden
with the stuffing - yumm!).



The last days we harvested our potatoes. The waxy ones
had already yellow leaves for quite a while. First I thought,
it still was too early, as we only got a hand full potatoes.
A few days later I was curious. We dug deeper and found
some more of them - bigger ones! My son had a lot of fun.
So today he pulled out and dug out the floury ones for
mashed potatoes - mmmhh...


On the left photo you can see a bind weed, which I've
pulled out of the potato field easily. I'm amazed by the
long root, so it's now growing in a glass full of water in
the kitchen :)

The choir performance went well. We had a full house,
a great atmosphere and a lot of fun, even if it was hot
like in the oven. My sister and her family were very
supportive - they smile every time I look at them :)
My son and some friends were coming too. A wonderful
evening it was! We got so many lovely feedbacks.

After this hard work, we deserve a holiday :) I know,
I'm going to miss the choir girls and singing, but I'm
glad, it's holiday now.

wednesday and progress

So, it's Wednesday already. The choir performance
is getting closer - tonight is the rehearsal. Hope, it
won't take too long.


My shop is getting crowded (on the fact, that I never
had more than 12 pieces in the shop till last year *lol*).
I had to cancel an unpaid sale unluckily, so there are
now two Moon Over Paris necklaces. This one is my
last listing. I've made it as an alternate for a custom
order and she has picked the other one. It's a 'revival'
of my first focal flower style, but with some leafs added
and made on the curved mandrel (that's why it's a lot
bigger than my old one).

Oh, and look at this.

Curators: OneClayBead, Lori411, iragranteco, aysetugrul,
karuski, brownbunnybyiris, ixela, emcisaac and Sumikoshop
I don't think, I've ever been featured in so many Ts
at one time. Thank you so much, girls! As I'm rarely
hanging around much on Etsy, I'm very grateful, that
you still think of me *hugs*

Also thanks to Craftopolis for making it easier to keep
an overview of Ts and TWs! It's one of the tools I visit on
daily basis to track my shop activity. The other two are
craftcult and Google Analytics (although I find the stats
about the referring sites are not always logically traceable,
but maybe I'm the one who is a dork ^_^). So, thanks to
both of them as well!

Now to my experiment aka guessing game ;) Have you
seen my last hint (there's another hint in the next
paragraph too ;))? It's not too late to enter a comment
(or two or three.. ;)) on this post.

Yesterday I've made three more glass pieces.

Can you see the flaw of the piece on the front left? That's
my old third piece, which I haven't shown you. I've
tried to etch it - didn't think, that Pyrex won't etch. But
it seems, that I've worked sloppy, as at this piece some
spots got etched. Those spots are where the glass was
fumed by the titan rod I used to make the hole (it's only
my theory ;)). If I had heated the glass thoroughly after
making the hole, those fumed spots would have been
gone. I will try to rework this one today - hope it'll work.

I've also made the next piece to ensemble to the end
result. It's made of polymer clay, ink and silk thread.
Actually the oval ring has been sitting since the begin of
this year, but my idea was not ripe enough, so I've put
it aside. I think, now it's the right time to use it :) The
part with the drawing is coated with a matte varnish.

And which glass piece will be the one for the winner of
this game? Well, I still haven't decided yet. I haven't
even decide, either it'll be a necklace, a brooch or even
something totally different. I'll let my creativity flow ;)
Just watch this space and see the next progress.

So, now off to my workspace :) CU!

sunday

..is already over 3 hours ago. Eek! I should already be
in bed, dreaming, but I'm still sitting here. Editing some
photos for a project - of course after watching my
favorite series on TV ;)


The lamp was the flea market find I once told you - still with
the original lamp shade, which I don't really like because of
the rim and the shape, but esp. the rim.

I'm wishing you a lovely start of the new week! I'll be
back to show you the next progress of my experiment
on Wednesday. So, don't forget to play along. Here's
my next hint: it has something to do with the photo
above ;) BTW.. you may of course guess more than
once :) CU!

let's play again :)

Some of you might remember, I once made a game.
Only two persons dare to take part. I didn't realize,
I made it too difficult. Anyway.. I've decided to reward
both of them for their bravery ^_^ And here's the
answer - my yellow is shown as white spaces in the
small box:


Well, I think, I should make another game now :)
Remember I told you I want to make an experiment
a few days ago? I did. On the left is my material and
on the right you can see two of my experiment results
(I'll let you know what happened with my third one in
another post ;)). I'm going to work further on them to
get the final result - they are work in progress.


**
Now to the game..

My question:
do you know, what was the original function of my
material before it became my lampwork glass material?
My tip:
click on the photo to see it bigger and watch
each form of the pieces carefully to find a hint ;)
edit: here's my next hint :)
What you should do:
left a comment and let me know your answer. The
deadline is July 31st, 2009.
edit: deadline prolonged till August 3rd and winner
will be picked on August 4th!
What I'll do afterwards:
on August 1st I will announce the right answer and the
winner. If there are more than one person with the right
answer, I will pick a winner randomly.
What to win:
the final item with one piece of my experiment results.
I'll post the progress of it here in my blog and in my
Flickr gallery :)
edit: watch the progress here and here
So, let's play and tell me your guess! :)
**

Btw.. no need to guess, dish washing is tiring :P


and I've tried to multitask while writing this post -
I just listed Flamenco Night.


And now I'm saying good night to you, my friend! Have
a lovely weekend!

first zucchinis

Yesterday we had the first zucchini from our own garden
for dinner. They have grown quite a lot. The biggest one
(the left on the photo) was about 40 cm long and 7 cm in
diameter on the thickest part - we gave it to our former
neighbor, who has invited my son to play with her grandson.
We ate the smaller one, approx. 30 cm long and 6 cm thick.
Yummy! It's much better than bought ones. It's not the
one on the photo though - that will be our dinner one of
the next days ;)



Soon I can reap coriander seeds. The strawberry plants
have lots of flowers and fruits and everyday we can pick
some berries. I wonder, either the potatos are big enough
to dig out.

We are not the one, who enjoy the garden. The bees are
having fun these days, as the oreganos are blooming.


As you can see on the 1st photo, there are bind weeds
all around. I really need to work in the garden today.
And portulaca are also growing wild there (upper right).
I know, they are considered as weed too, but as we can
eat them as salad, I let them grow ^_^

rain

It's raining this morning (like the last days). Not really
motivating. I wanted to do some errands with my bike
and now I have to go by bus. I don't have a rain coat,
as I don't like it - my glasses would still get wet and I
can't see anything. So I prefer an umbrella, but that
means no biking today.

No gardening as well. Oh my, I've neglected my garden
since I've started lampworking again. The zucchini plants
have taken the most advantage out of the rain. It grows
and grows, covered almost all my other plants - potato,
sweet potato (my poor sweet potato rarely grows - they
need sun!!), marigold, salad,.. Look, how my garden looked
like just a month before and how it is now.


A rainy day is a perfect day for lampworking though, as
my tiny studio won't get hot as on sunny days. But first
get myself ready, then I hope to grab a treasury to show
you what's in my poster sketch for some days now, before
finally going to do my errands and then lampworking
afterwards. I'll make a new experiment today :)

Talking about treasury, one of my last Ts was featured in
Sarah & Olivia's blog along with seven more beautiful Ts.
I love reading their comments about the Ts :) I've never
seen, someone done this before - featuring Ts, without
making them nor being included therein. What a sweet idea!
Thank you, S&O!

Last not least if you are a fan of penguins and/or plush,
I wanna invite you to Akiyo's giveaway. But of course, I
hope I'd win a mini penguin myself *lol*

past days

Days passing and I haven't been able to keep my promise
last week. Here are some photos of the past days..


Our visitor has introduced Ligretto, Connect Four,
Rummykub and another 'handmade' one with numbers
(I don't know the name though) to my son during her
visit.


Some collected troves on the way home.


Lampworking, when there's time.


Enjoying 'piccolino' with my visitor in an ice cream parlor
at the harbor (the Oktoberfest music from the next
restaurant has ruined the short holiday feeling though) -
one thing you have to try, if you are here.


Our last station that evening - Dixieland music, that's
rather my kind of music :)


Fun swap - thanks, Estella! I love the urchins!


Singing! The choir is heading a performance in 2 weeks,
so we are practicing a lot and we spread fliers and posters
in town.
My sister and her family will see and hear me singing for
the first time. Exciting and frightening *lol* Frightening,
as I still remember the black out I once had on the 3rd
day of my big dance performance, when my family came
to watch. Well, my sister was an expert on stage since she
was young - Balinese dance, ballet, guitar, piano (maybe
you could understand my nervousness now? *lol*).
If you wanna give me a support or simply see, either I
can do it right this time, just order a ticket here ;)

Last not least a Trifiori necklace. I'm not sure, I like the
color. It's too skin-like for me, I like the glass color as rod
better, but maybe someone will love it ;) I'll list it tonight.
It's now listed here :)

moon over paris

Uh oh, I'm not a multitasking kind of girl - I started
to make my Etsy shop awake again, but my blog is
neglected ever since, even if I've written in my shop
announcement to watch this space for update *blush*
I've erased this phrase again, since I don't think I have
much time to blog the next days or weeks, since I'll
have visitors one after another. My first visitor will
come tomorrow. Busy July :) Hope, I can show you
some photos once and a while.

Remember those round beads in this post? I just listed
a necklace with one of them - Moon Over Paris *phew*
It always takes me SO long to list a new item. I'm always
overcritical about the photos, the description, the price...
- simply about everything. I've taken some photos
yesterday (e.g. this one), but I was not really satisfied
with them. The golden shine of the bead didn't come
out well. So today I've taken some more photos with
darker background and I like them better.



A few minutes after the listing..


I used to collect those moments of 'first FP appearance'
(oh, and also screenshots of my treasuries *lol*) as I just
started my shop. Such a freak! *lol* I stopped this habit
(and a bit later the one with treasuries) very quickly, but
today it's a coincidence that I just couldn't resist ;)

I'm wishing you all a Happy Weekend and leave you a
link to dig :)

encounters

I love to work in the B&M shop. It's mainly because of
the interactions I have with the (potential ;)) customers.
Like on Saturday.

A woman came in, started to look at the jewelries. Her
little girl (maybe 4 or 5 y.o.) came in afterwards, went
straight away to the table with some little porcelain angles
(they are perfume sprayers). She was amazed and asked
her mom to come and see them. While doing that she
always kept an eye of me :)

They strolled to the back part of the store, where the
body care products are. The girl wanted her mom to
show her things there. I asked the girl, if she wanted to
smell something. Yes! Her mom told me, her daughter
loves perfumes. I asked again, which one she'd like and
either she wanted the perfume on her hand or on a piece
of paper. She said the one with flowers, pointed to the
lavender one (luckily, cause all labels have flowers on
them ;)) and said, she wanted it on paper. I asked, either
she wants to spray it by herself, and she did. She took a
smell at the small paper and put it on her pocket. They
looked around for a while, the daddy came also in, then
they said goodbye to me and walked outside.

While walking the girl was arguing about something with
her dad. Outside the mommy said something to her
husband and he then gave the girl a big tube with
something inside. The girl came back to me in the shop.
They were on the aquarium that morning and she simply
wanted to show me the (plastic) fishes in the tube before
they really went. So sweet of her!

It's not only with kids. The other day there was a man,
who talked about design, passion and Zeitgeist with me -
a very interesting small talk. It made my day.

I remember nearly everyone, who has come to the shop
and had a small talk with me. It's like an invisible connection
between us. I have some very neat conversations with
people through Etsy too, but somehow it's different, if you
meet the people in real, and I just need it. I guess, I'm
somehow antiquated ;)