BTW- A Table Full Of Friends

OK so this is not exactly my bead table this morning but it is a table full of goodness!

This is a shot of me and my Tribemates at Art and Soul Hampton 2010 taken by Rice Freeman Zachary and EGE for her new book, Destination Creativity, which is available now! I just ordered mine!

Our next gathering is ArtBliss!  WooHoo! can't wait! Are you going to be there? Cindy and Jeannette have a great lineup of instructors, Deryn Mentock, Richard Salley, Jane Salley, Kerry Bogert, Diane Cook, Robert Dancik and Christine Damm. There will be a charm swap, a meet and greet and a trunk show not to be missed! We had a fabulous time last year at the inaugural event ! Hope you can join us!

I am not linking up this morning but you can still hop on over to the flickr group to see what's on everyone elses' table this Wednesday!

The Morning After

Sun is shining, skies are blue, we are blessed!

This tree, our big old Catalpa tree you may remember from this post, was our big concern in our hurricane preparations. I took this photo on thursday evening right before the tree service we called arrived to trim some of the limbs and lighten the weight of the bigger ones.

This tree sits southeast of our house and could easily have sent a big limb through our roof or the roof of either of the rental houses next to us.

As you can see we got a little drastic about it to be safe, taking out anything that was split or questionable.

This is how it looks this morning. If you look close at the fronts of both of the rental houses, you can see branches piled up in front of them and they were strewn all about our lawn and the road too.  Had we not lightened the weight of those big limbs we would surely have a different story to tell today!

The front of my studio faces north so we boarded those big windows up to protect them from flying debris in all the noreast winds .

Right before we boarded the windows I took a shot of the hibiscus that were just starting to bloom fully since I planted them about a month ago. I figured they would be destroyed when the wind shifted to the west as this is the west side of the building. They fared better than I expected, they are a little broken, flowers gone of course but I think they will make it.

The west side of the building. The east side which i don't have a shot of, lost a bunch of shingles off the roof, Still, all things considered, we did great!

The red tipped photinias on the East side of the building got uprooted and we hope to stake them up and hopefully they will live. You can see a few broken shingles here and there.

The rain ( we got over a foot) flooded the ditchbanks and streets and you can see the tideline as to how far the water came up on the property. Fortunately we are on fairly high ground here so we didn't flood.

We had rain and wind for about 30 hours and so glad we didn't get it any worse than we did.  We lost power for about 5 hours. My hope is that everyone who was in Irene's path recovers quickly with little damages and loss.

We have heard that the beach is closed but may reopen in time for the holiday weekend and that the first assessment is the relentless pounding actually may have added sand to the beach instead of taking it away.

Prayers were definitely heard around here!

Thank you to everyone who sent them!

Here She Comes!

Well, we have awakened to rain and wind already this morning. We have been making preparations for the past 2 days so hopefully we are prepared for what's coming.

i'm thankful that irene has weakend a bit but it is still going to be a hurricane when it reaches us and they say it will pound us for about 24 hours straight, have never had a hurricane last that long so I'm sure the beach erosion will be tremendous as will the coastal flooding. We are not in the mandatory evacuation zone thankfully .

We are on the Delmarva Peninsula, that area that is below Ocean City Md in the pix here. The line right below the D in MD is the Maryland / Virginia state line. I live directly below that.

My prayers go out to everyone who will be in her path over the next few days, be safe and I'll be back here as soon as power resumes which I am sure we will lose before long.



Soup Du Jour

Lookie Looksee what arrived just for me!!

Yesterday in the middle of all the hurricane preparations a sweet package arrived to brighten the day!

Inside the envelope was this great tin all decorated and labeled for the bead soup blog party.

Kari Carrigan of Wee Gems is my bead soup partner and I hope she recieved her soup mix today too!

Opening to see just a glimpse of all the surprises that await-

I am SO EXCITED that Kari sent me some of her gorgeous lampwork beads to cook with! Aren't they incredible? The blues and greens with silver accents  *swoon* and the others look like she captured the colors of the beach inside!

She also sent me 2 options for focals, a beautiful lampwork shell and a heart, a silver toggle clasp, matching pearls and czech glass and 3 of her charmed pennies pendants!

Oh look, a chicken!

Kari must have been reading and really paying attention because one of the pennies has chickens on it, one has a bird in a nest and the other says Photography chick on it.

Thank you Kari for taking the time to make your selection for me personal and for your generous lampwork.

I can't wait to get started!



***Update***
I just heard from kari and her soup arrived today too and she hopes to blog about it soon so in the meantime I will show you this-

This was the teaser picture that i posted when it mailed out

And here's what was in the soup mix. Looks like kari and i are kindred spririts when it comes to colors huh?

Looking forward to the big reveal on Sept. 17th

You can check out Kari's blog here

BTW- The Beadfest Version

My bead table this week is full courtesy of my recent trip to Beadfest Philly

First up is a gorgeous collection of Elaine Ray beads from Ornamentea.

I tried to win one of Heather's books in their giveaway but i guess I'll just have to buy one since i didn't win it!

Next up is beautiful lampworked flowers from the talented Lisa Kan and some Italian wire mesh ribbon.

Then I found the coolest recycled glass, rings cut from vintage coke bottles by Cathy at GlassGardenBeads.

I can't get out of the Hands of the Hills booth without some antiquity. I am most excited to have found these blue Peking Glass melon beads, very rare from the 1800's. I picked up some more of those beautiful aqua trade beads too.

Then just for fun we found some etched glass rounds and daggers reminding us of beach glass and look at those cool colors!

AAAhhhh, aqua terra jasper

An earthy variety of ceramic, jasper, lapis and shell

Some pretties, prehnite, chalcedony,green amethyst, amethyst, moss amethyst, moonstone and cherry quartz briolettes. Knowing my palette, those cherry quartz stick out like a sore thumb don't they?

 My favorite is the moss amethyst which has greens, purples a little brownish and clear moss filled stones. Love.Them.

Some dagger shaped labradorites, prehnite and amethysts.

Are these chrysocolla cabs just amazing???

The ones with the darker areas are called Sonoran Cactus chrysocolla.

Chrysocolla beads were on my have to buy list and believe me they were hard to find so imagine how thrilled I was to find these?

I think my palette is pretty evident, blues, greens and purples but I went outside my box a couple of times and picked up some crab fire agates, garnets and tourmalines ( which really still fall in my palette)

Plus some aquamarines, blue topaz and blue apatite faceted rounds.

Been There-

I took 2- 3 hour classes while there on Saturday.

The first was Rockin Rivets with Kieu Pham Gray ( in the center) along with 2 BFF's Carol and Bette.

We learned to drill holes in river stones and glass and set with a sterling silver tube rivet-fun!

Kieu is a hoot and we did a lot of damage in her booth Urban Beader , she had a bunch of must haves.

The second class was a jewelry photography class with Jim Lawson who does a lot of work for Interweave publications among other things. look for his name by photos, you'll be amazed how much he does.

Done that-

My 2 river stones from class

That black one was tricky as it wasn't flat and the rivet is set in a ridge.

Got the T-shirt-

Isn't this funny? We got these t-shirts from Kieu's booth, sounds better than tool junkie dontchathink?

Then after braving some wicked storms on the way home, arrived to find these waiting for me.

I have THE BEST husband.

I'm sorry that i don't have more pictures from the beadfest floor itself, i did carry my camera with all intentions of taking lots of pictures but got caught up in the moment and shopping frenzy and never took the camera out - was too busy fishing for my credit card all the time :)

But we did get to see a lot of people and enjoy the company of friends old and new, over dinner and I might add we had our share of "Oh look a chicken" moments as we all got sidetracked by the shiny things surrounding us!

So, what's on your table today?

Head on over to the Flickr group to see what's on everyone elses' table today! 



What the?

Ok this is a first for me, i was just sitting here working on some photos when my chair started to rock and the beads in the cabinet starting shaking and it felt like someone suddenly had their hands on my house shaking it from side to side!

My first ever earthquake, have to say, not a fan.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/usc0005ild.html

Bead Soup To Go

I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date

The bead soup mix was supposed to be mailed out on Aug 17th but my bead soup partner and I agreed to send them out a few days later, the first of this week.

With everything that has gone on in the past few weeks, I wanted to get it right and was too rushed last week with work and getting ready to go to beadfest.

I was stressing in a big way, nothing ever goes right when you rush,  but now am very happy with the soup mix I put together for Kari and hope she likes it.

This is the container I am sending it in, (wrapped in bubble wrap and a box of course) and below is a tease of the mix inside!



Oh Look, A Chicken!

When our nephew and Godchild was younger, he had a t-shirt that said

"They say I have A.D.D. but I think they're full of....

Oh Look, a chicken"

Well, this quickly became the punch line anytime one of us has a moment where we quickly change thoughts and conversations mid stream while someone is trying to follow along.

The person who is trying to follow along will call the talker back to reality by saying "Oh Look, a chicken" bringing to the talkers attention ( what little there is of it) that they abruptly went off on a tangent mid stream.

My nephew I will add, now grown, has an acronym on his license plate that spells, oh look a chicken.

Getting to the real story here ( and proving my point just a little bit) the other evening , my husband and i took a quick dip in the pool and shortly thereafter heard the dog barking so we looked around and this chicken was walking into our yard.

We have no idea where it came from and it wandered all around the yard and garden for awhile.

I couldn't help but say, yup, you guessed it. 

Then I guess the heat combined with 12 hour workdays are getting to me, but I just had to ask,

" so tell me, why exactly did you cross that road?"

Then i thought of taking a picture and jumped out of the pool to grab my camera saying " I need to get a picture for Patty"

At which time my husband said "who's Patty?"

They say my nephew is a lot like me but I think-

We noticed it wandered down the street to my studio and stayed around for a few days leaving piles of unpleasantries on the steps before disappearing.

"Oh Look, chicken s---"

Weird huh?



BTW

Things have been so crazy around here i can't even remember when I last participated in bead table wednesdays. ( actually checking back it was 7/13) This week my bead table has actually been my kitchen island where I have been doing some etching.

These are some of the pieces that have come from it. I am working on some Art Nouveau designs and so far am pleased with the results. Hopefully I can post the finished jewelry in another upcoming BTW!

Join the flickr group to see what's on everyone's table today



I Heart Macro

This morning is I heart Macro over at Studio Waterstone, won't you join us?

These are the buds of my tuberose plant. The perfume I wear is velvet tuberose so I thought it might be fun to grow a few this year. It is said that Cleopatra wore tuberose.

I planted the bulbs in pots on my steps so that when they bloomed I could enjoy their fragrance each ime I walked by.

This bud had been growing and expanding for 2 weeks now. I just hope it blooms before a strong wind in the upcoming thunderstorms snap it off before I get to enjoy it!

Most of the flowers have succumbed to the extreme heat we have had over the past few weeks/month but the phlox still has some pretty blooms on it.

Have a beautiful Sunday!



Pony Tails Pony Tales

On Thursday July 28th we took this little pony tail

To see these pony tails.

Let me explain-

I had made a promise to my granddaughter that this year I would take her to the Pony Swim Auction so that she could see and take pictures, after getting her new camera for her birthday. 

 That of course was before the fire.

 But on weds. the day of the pony swim, my husband said they would be busy tearing out the walls and ceiling thursday and putting it back so there wouldn't be much i could do to help them and he encouraged me to take the day and make good on my promise.

The 86th Annual Chincoteague Pony Swim and Auction takes place the last weds and thursday in July and is sponsored by the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company.

Made famous by Marguerite Henry's 1947 book "Misty of Chincoteague", the pony swim and auction draws thousands of people every year to the island to experience the event.

After the ponies swim ashore, they are paraded through the streets of Chincoteague on their way to the carnival grounds where they are corraled until the swim back on the friday following the swim.

The day after the swim is always the pony auction and as you can see there were plenty of people already on site when we arrived. I was told that people had started setting up lawn chairs and taping blankets to the bleachers the week before.

We found a cool spot under the trees,( it was another 100+ day ) right behind a set of bleachers but a few steps away we had a pretty clear view of the action.

As shown in the first picture, a kind man who had a taped blanket, offered for us to lift our granddaughter up there to sit and see and take pictures. Given the fact that she is 40 pounds I was very grateful for the gesture!

My parents accompanied us as they had never been to the auction either.

The auctioneer did a great job of keeping everyone engaged and bidding.

Some of the foals were able to leave right away while some others , as young as a month old, were to be kept with the herd until they could be picked up in October.

When the youngest ones came out they were met with a lot of "AAawww,s"

I guess if you set up your chair a week in advace and are willing to brave the sun and extreme heat , you get the chance to take closeup pictures and maybe pet one or two.

 I believe this is the one they said had blue eyes.

After a few hours I saw it was time for something a little different.

We took a walk around the carnival grounds to the corral where the ponies were and some of the buy back foals had been returned to.

The Mom of this little one was walking around and around it in protective mode.

Then we found a tent and vendor selling everything for horses and their riders.

The day wouldn't be complete without a cowgirl hat, and she spotted the pink one 50 feet away!

I remember getting her Mommy a similar hat when she was about the same age. Feels like yesterday!

We left before the very end of the auction to avoid all the traffic getting out and headed to the Island Creamery for an ice cream lunch.

Smiles from beginning to end!

Further information about the annual pony swim and the history and fundraising can be found at all the links provided.