WEST COAST ROAD TRIP - Part 4...

The boys flew into San Francisco on Tuesday & we met up w/ Kalli & Lisa down by Fisherman's Wharf so they could meet the boys (Kalli was @ our wedding & a really special part of our family, so she couldn't NOT meet them!).



Kalli drove the boys & I down Lombard Street while Brad walked down the stairs on the side & took a pictures...

(look at the view!!}



...including one of us coming down.





See Sam hanging out of the passenger's side window?





He's taking this video, LOL (it's really windy/noisy)...

You can see Brad taking our picture toward the end of the video. You can also get a glimpse of Cote Tower a few times off in the distance.

It was a really cool drive to do... of course it's historic, too. We had a blast driving up & down the steep steep hills, too... I have a video of us taking the boys up & down some of the steep hills, but I have to figure out how to edit it first.


On our way to Fisherman's Wharf, we walked through a park & Brayden took this picture of a group doing Tai Chi...


This are a few more of Brayden's photos...

This fantastic crab sculpture at Pier 39




What a sweet sculpture... this was right by where the sea lions hang out on Pier 39.





Sweet kisses...







Group shot...






We decided to let the kids pick where to eat their first night in San Francisco... they picked probably one of the more expensive seafood places at the pier, the Franciscan! It was fantastic! Kalli, Lisa, Sam & I shared a crab feast for 4... Brayden had to take this picture of Sam & me in our bibs. Sam will probably shoot me for posting this. :o)

It was a fun evening. So great to spend more time w/ Kalli & Lisa... the boys had fun w/ them & I think the girls were impressed w/ them. Sam's sense of humor has really stepped up a few notches this past year or so & he was equally entertaining as Lisa was.

The next day we headed north, over the Golden Gate Bridge. We stopped across the bridge on the Sausalito side because we were told that the view of the city is spectacular from there & guess what?? MAJOR fog! Windy & super cold, too, so we didn't hang out for long & headed north up highway 1 that runs along the coast. BEAUTIFUL!!!

On up to the Redwoods we go.....

WEST COAST ROAD TRIP - Part 3...

After the conference was over, Sunday, Father's Day, Brad & I took a quick little road trip up to wine country... stopping at a few brewpubs along the way. :o)


We stopped & walked through our first giant redwood forest.... so peaceful & awe inspiring.









The drive was so beautiful... my most favorite had to be just outside of Healdsburg, California... rolling hills, vineyards, beautiful blue sky...


This was Brad's favorite part of Healdsburg...






We spent the evening in Santa Rosa, which is a beautiful town, sadly hit severely by the economy... this place was rocking, though... (literally... they had a fantastic band that night... the place was packed! Picture was taken the next day)



The kids were flying into San Francisco on Tuesday, so we headed back & actually stayed in "the city" on Monday night... it was so cool to drive into the parking lot of the motel & look up to see the rooms surrounding us...



Brad & I really enjoyed our time w/out the kids... it's something that we try to do every year, at least a long weekend.... this year was extra special because we celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary! It's nice to know that we still really like eachother after all of these years. :o) I'm a very lucky girl.

On to Part 4...

WEST COAST ROAD TRIP - Part 2...

I didn't mention that we were in the San Francisco area for BEER, did I?? Brad is a homebrewer & the National Homebrewers Conference was in Oakland, June 18-20. So... while Brad was @ the conference, I spent 2 full days with Hadar Jacobson @ her studio in Berkeley, working with silver, bronze & copper metal clays! It was FANTASTIC! I learned so much & made some really cool things. Hadar is a sweet lady... quiet & patient & extremely talented! It was awesome seeing her fantastic pieces in person. Being from out of town, I attended her Thursday & Friday morning AND evening classes & then stayed in the studio in between... so lots of time to learn & play. What I didn't expect was that Hadar would be there in those in between times, too... continuing to show me the ropes. It was very cool... one-on-one time w/ Hadar.

Here are some of the pieces that I made...


I just love this piece... it was great to see how Hadar pieces pieces together like this... I would've done it the hard way.
















This piece was made from an actual pebble... it was so great to know how this was done... definitely a technique I will use again (& again & again). See the groove going around the "fabric wrap"? The plan is to wrap some copper wire around there... just haven't decided how to tie it off yet. As I was drilling the holes for the chain, I felt like I was giving "LARRYBOY" a lobotomy. Poor Larryboy. :o)



Silver & Copper cylinders waiting to be wired up for earrings. Another fantastic lesson... combining silver & copper clays... not as straigforward as you'd think.






This copper & bronze piece still needs a little refining, but another awesome technique.



Needless to say...I'm so happy that I decided to take a class w/ Hadar! My initial thought was to find a glass class to take. There are so many things I can do to combine metal clay w/ my glasswork... I'm excited about all of the possibilities!

We stayed in Oakland across the street from the conference, which was really nice & convenient... Brad had classes all day, including sampling of beer & different events in the evening... the last thing I needed was to worry about him trying to find his way back to the hotel on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit - their train system). :o)

Saturday, while Brad attended the last day of the conference, I took BART into San Francisco in the morning to meet up w/ an online lampworking friend, Hayley Tsang & her sister, Helen (I met Helen @ Hadar's on Thursday!). My timing was PERFECT, as the Northern California chapter of ISGB (International Society of Glass Beadmakers) were meeting up at Arrow Springs, a lampwork glass & tools supplier, for an annual bead bazaar! It was awesome! First of all, it was a 2 1/2 hour drive (north of Sacramento), so lots of time for the three of us to get to know eachother. I saw Sharon Peters, whom I had missed seeing @ Bead & Button this year...also got to meet some great online glass friends... Lisa Fletcher, Toni Lutman, Sadie Cuming (whom I actually met @ Hadar's, too!), Jelveh Jaferian, Aimee Milan, Lena Rhodes & so many others...& of course Donna Milliron, of Arrow Springs. (no, I didn't get a chance to meet her husband, Craig, dang!) Did lots of bead trading... plenty of my acorns are out there now. :o) It was great to see Arrow Springs' facility, too.

Ended up spending the evening @ Hayley's w/ her boyfriend & Helen, too... they made a fabulous chicken curry dish & we spent the evening checking out eachother's beads & pieces that they've made @ Hadar's... & chatting about people that we know online. It was a fun day!

I LOVE meeting people in person that I know online... it makes the online experience that much more personal. You can not only picture THEM now, but you know their voice & mannerisms, etc.

On to Part 3...

WEST COAST ROAD TRIP - Part 1...

A few days after getting home from the Bead & Button Show, the kids finished school & we hit the road that very afternoon! We left Diego (the dog) w/ Brad's mom (THANK YOU!) drove to Denver (Littleton) to drop off the boys @ my parents' (THANK YOU!!)... spent an evening w/ my sisters & headed west the next day. A quick stop in Grand Junction, Colorado to see Brad's brother & family, meet our adorable great niece, Mallory (they call her Mayo!) & see her daddy, Justin's, new tattoo studio, The Raw Canvas! I am sooooooooooo proud of him! We met when he was 5 & I was 19. W/ me, being the youngest "adult" in the group & he, the only child, he was drawn to me (& I to him!)... we played w/ legos & moved on to crayons & then watercolors. I'd like to think our early artistic endeavors had a little influence on his future! (fine artist, art teacher & now tattoo artist) He's a phenomenal & ultra creative artist, I can't wait to have a little Justin work of art on me somewhere [appropriate]!

(click image for larger detailed view)
We drove through Utah & Nevada,








Spent the night in beautiful Mammoth, California & then spent the next day wandering around Yosemite National Park...











...ending up in Berkeley at the end of the day.

The next morning found us running around San Francisco w/ an old friend from Colorado who now lives in the SF area, Kalli, & her wife, Lisa.









It was an awesome day... they took us to Fisherman's Wharf, (we had a laugh @ these signs on the corner by the wharf)




the Golden Gate Bridge







View of the city from the Golden Gate Bridge...





and Alcatraz, too...







.......& my favorite, The Palace of Fine Arts.














While I took pictures of all of the details...














































Brad was doing this...
(click image to see what he's up to!)

climbing onto things that he probably shouldn't! LOL! (NOTE: this will not be the last time...see Redwoods)





With the wrong address in hand, we searched & searched for the "PAINTED LADIES" (yeah, Brad didn't know what they were, either... kinda made him nervous that we were looking for them, LOL)... seeing beautiful architecture all around us, just driving around was awesome... the bay, the steep hills, the colorful details in the buildings... just the hunt itself was so cool.


We finally found the "PAINTED LADIES"...


I love all of the details... & yeah, it was cool, they're famous/historical homes...






BUT, some of the homes & buildings that we saw while we were on the hunt were quite impressive... maybe even more so!!!

Look at these beauties!!













We ended up @ a brewpub (of course!) called the Thirsty Bear where we enjoyed some fantastic Tapas & shared some awesome desserts! I loved hanging w/ Kalli & Lisa... they're PASSIONATE about dessert, especially Lisa... they order not just one to share... not even two... but maybe 3 or more! Then we ended the evening @ an Irish pub in Berkeley for another round of desserts. :o) Crazy girls.

On to Part 2...

GALLERIES & ROADTRIPS...

...before the Bead & Button Show, my sweet friend Jennifer Ionta & I went up to visit Bell Street Gallery on Madeline Island, Wisconsin for the first time over the Memorial Day weekend. The gallery is so well done... unique to the island & really well received. Steve, the owner, is such a neat guy...his wife, daughter Kelly & good friends were up there for the weekend, too (Kelly will be there all summer)... it was so nice getting to know them! We enjoyed demoing... as soon as you light up a torch it is sure to bring in an audience. We can't wait to get back up there... will be going up w/ our families the weekend of July 31st & for sure again the first weekend in October (Bayfield's Apple Festival that weekend!), maybe some time in September, too, not sure, yet. Check out the gallery's website calendar or my website's schedule, I'll be sure to put the dates up there.

Here are a few pictures from that weekend... I borrowed them from the Gallery's blog...




Next post... ROADTRIP!!

I HAVE A FOLLOWING....

So... I have these two wonderful ladies who seem to have been following my glass journey for a while, Robin Koza & Carol Watson. They must've been talking about me because sometime before The Bead & Button Show last month, they both contacted me separately (the same day!) to say that they were excited to be able to meet me @ B&B & wanted to buy this & this & that, LOL! Too cute. We were all "friends" on Facebook, so I immediately went out to see who they were, put it together that they were business partners in an Etsy store called Cahootz! So I went out to see what they offered in their store & saw that they had viking knit pieces & hand dyed silk ribbons. Woo-hoo...sounds like a trade to me! (Regarding the viking knit... I make a really pretty bracelet that has viking knit on it & it's expensive because this viking knit is handmade [by me]... it's time consuming & I always joke that I'd have to hire some young child in a foreign country to do it for me to bring my price down!) So, it was really fun to meet them & they had their way w/ what they found in my booth & we ended up w/ a fantastic trade & I ended up w/ some great new friends! They're both quite adorable.

I didn't realize until later that Robin owned Glass Diversions, a fantastic frit blend business that everyone in the lampworking community knows & buys from. I'm such a dork. I just didn't put it together!! I don't do much frit, so I have probably only purchased from her once... a while ago. FABULOUS colors... yummy yummy frit... I'd love to incorporate more into my work.

Looking forward to getting to know them both....

TIME FLIES...

when you're a busy girl. :o)

Wow...where to start??

Well...we just got back from a 3 week road-trip to the west coast, so I thought I'd get myself back to blogging & tell you what I've been up to lately!!

Bead & Button was FANTASTIC!!! I LOVE doing shows...I love meeting & talking to shoppers & other artists... I love seeing other people's work... I just love the whole experience, period!! It was a really great show... slower than other years, from what I understand, but I did really well... that's really exciting. I can't imagine how I would've done in the past if this was slow! :o)

People LOVED my acorns & birdhouses... especially the acorns. It's so much fun watching people try to pick out the one they want... they definitely have their own personalities. I sold a kaleidoscope, too... I just had it there as a sample of my work & someone bought it! :o) I sold lots of beads and a bunch of my handmade changeable bead pendants... the simple ones AND some of my cast twig ones, too! Yay! I also sell 4"-5" long argentium and fine silver headpins, those went well, too.

I had my oldest sister, Jeri, from Colorado, there to help me... it was fun to have her there... but geez, I almost had to chain her to the table to keep her from wandering off to shop!! :o) Every time she went to the bathroom I didn't see her for a half hour or more! Stinker. She kept her phone w/ her, though, so when 8 people swarmed my booth at one time, I would quickly text her "HELP!!" & she'd be right there! LOL. It worked just fine. I finally got a little time on Sunday to break away & visit w/ other artists that I only know from online. I just love that! I enjoyed meeting Lori Greenberg (& her cool mom!), Donna Mehnert & Kimberly Affleck... all very talented ladies that I was excited to meet! I especially loved meeting & getting a big bear hug from my favorite Facebook man Rashan Jones! It was so cool to finally meet him & see his work in person! He is a fantastic glass artist & we traded beads! :o) Several online friends & other artists stopped by to say hi & check out my work, too. I was so excited that Lisa Atchison stopped by to meet me! I just love her work & she's been so sweet & supportive online... & she's so freakin' cute, too... I was so pleased to get to meet her in person & see some of her beautiful work, too! Who else?? Amber Ballard, Robin Koza & Carol Watson stopped by... I just love them... it was so much fun meeting them & really look forward to getting to know them more online. Lots of acorn / bead trades that weekend!! :o) Stephanie Ann & Kerry Fuhr are now acorn owners, too. Those are some sweet & talented ladies...I was thrilled that they asked to trade! What a fun weekend. Samma Parcels stopped by, too... it was really nice to meet her.

Some of my favorite chicks from the Missouri Bead Retreat showed up, too.... Kimberly Polka, Serena Thomas & Marilyn Roberts. Had dinner w/ Kimberly & Serena one night... what a blast!! It's so good to see them... I miss them.

I had Kristi Evenson's (Coliebug Beads) work there w/ me, too... remember, this was her booth... sadly she didn't do as well as she typically does... not even close... I felt bad, but I was reminded by mutual artist friends that people like to buy directly from the artist... especially the normal large wholesale orders she would get... of course they wouldn't want me to set that up for them. I still felt like I let her down, though. Crazy thing, though, she had a banner made up w/ her new business name on it (CB&CO)... it was gorgeous & matched her work much more than her old whimsical name/logo did, but it really confused people. She was listed as Coliebug Beads in the program & people know her as such, so they didn't "get" the new banner. Some people would ask... but it became REALLY obvious when a friend of hers came by and asked if it was Kristi's work. She said that she kept walking up & down the aisle looking for her & would pass our booth & see her work & get really really ticked off each time, thinking that we were ripping Kristi's work off!!! LOL! It was funny, but really made us see that we were really confusing people.... so we put back up the Coliebug sign that B&B supplied us with and used my labeler to make large labels on her display board that said "Coliebug Beads aka CB&CO"... that seemed to help alot! People loved her work (handmade silver & copper findings) & actually, it went really well w/ my glasswork, so we had people putting the two together. Very cool!

Anyway... Kristi decided that even if the two shows end up on the same weekend next year, like she thinks they will, she's going to do B&B. She apologized, but I told her it was completely understandable... she relies on her B&B sales, especially the wholesale orders & new business customers she gets each year since they will probably buy from her throughout the year... that's huge for her. I love that I was able to have the experience & get myself out there...& I'm happy that I was able to help her at least keep her much desired booth space. From what I understand, since I was under contract w/ B&B for Kristi's booth space, it will make it easier for me to get my own space next year, even w/ the long waiting list... soooooooooo, I've applied for my own booth... cross your fingers that I get in!!

So, there you go... Bead & Button was a fantastic experience & I can't wait to do it again! Hopefully I won't have to wait too long!! :o)

Will write more about our road trip & what I'm up to next tomorrow...

Till then....

~ Julie