Forever!

Good grief, it's been forever since I had anything of relative substance to say here. Not that I usually have incredible, high-level news, but still....

Summer is in full swing here, which means....I have made nothing recently. Well, nothing in glass, anyway. Actually, that's not entirely true.....at the beginning of June, I made these starfish beads, which I love love love! That's CiM's Creamsicle for the starfish, on a base of a variety of transparent and opaque blues, and some curdled ivory for the sand. Used Zoozii's SSL large trio for the shape (bead is made with the largest of the wells).

 And I FINALLY FINALLY was able to buy my new torch! A GTT Bobcat! It's so cute! And so much tinier than I expected! Unfortunately, for now, it's still sitting in the cupboard in my laundry room/workshop. I haven't been able to purchase the oxygen concentrator I need in order to run it. Hopefully that will be a purchase for this fall. After that, I will need to figure out a way to run it without scorching the wall behind my workbench. It's bee such a long road to getting this equipment, I can't wait until I have it all together and set up.

My oldest daughter finished eighth grade, and attended her first formal dance, which was exciting for both of us. She is so very beautiful, and I cried, I must admit, after I dropped her off at the dance. I think this is my most favorite picture of her that I have taken in a while.

After school was out, we drove to Miami to visit my Dad. THAT was a heck of a long drive, but it was a very successful trip for us, which means TRAVELING is now a real thing we can do without losing our minds! I'm very excited by the places we can go, and I learned a lot on this trip about how to make it all go well. Lesson #1 is: Make sure the iPads are fully charged and loaded with lots of interesting games, ebooks, and other stuff.

We used Savannah, GA, as the halfway point for the trip on the way down and the way back. I'd never been to this lovely city, and I was absolutely enchanted. My oldest wants to go to the Savannah College of Art and Design, so it was convenient to show her what college could be like in this place. The live oaks were everywhere, covered with moss hanging down, and everything was so lush and beautiful!

We took a wonderful tour by horse and carriage (our horse was Batman!), and learned so many interesting tidbits about the history of Savannah and it's people. There's the Savannah College of Art and Design's Welcome Center on the left.

More beautiful live oak trees!

Amazing architecture! This building is a shop now, but used to be a stable, built by a wealthy Middle Eastern man for his Arabian horses so they wouldn't get homesick for the look of their traditional stables! I got some great detail shots of the texture of the columns, too. Henry Ford bought the building and turned it into a showroom for his 'horseless carriages'.

No stop in Savannah would complete for the Girl Scouts of the family without a trip to the Juliette Gordon Low House on the corner of Bull Street and Ogelthorpe Avenue. Here we are posing at the iron gate in the garden. It's the 100th Anniversary of Girl Scouting in the US, and I am happy we got to visit  Girl Scouting's Mecca, and take a tour of the interior of the house. We picked up commemorative pins and patches for uniforms, too.

The rest of our trip was pretty uneventful, just a long ride home culminating in some wicked thunderstorms right as we crossed the Virginia border. It was so nice to be home, though, after a week away. Since then, I've been spending LOTS of time at the neighborhood pool with the little kids, for swimming lessons and general playing in the pool. My oldest has gone to her summer at her dad's, and most days, it's just me, and Wren, and Noah.

There hasn't been a lot of opportunity for art-making for me so far, and frankly, since we just got through the worst heatwave I can remember, turning on the torch has not even been on the list of things I want to do. About two weeks of temperatures over 100* F with heat indices of 110 and over makes for a very unhappy HotGlassGirl. I even overwhelmed our heat pumps by baking hot dog buns one day, so running a kiln and a torch would be disastrous. Thankfully, the heat seems to have abated for the time being, but it's still too hot to melt glass.

I've been sewing, though, and trying to get into art journaling. I can't seem to wrap my brain around where to start with it all! I've got a ton of supplies, but I'm at a loss as to how to get started. Anybody have any good suggestions/resources/tips/tricks??

Anyway, there's the update for now. Hope all of you are having a great summer and enjoying yourself and making lots of things! 'Til next time....

AWOL

It's summer, and so that means my time to create and be creative is limited and short. I'm sorry to say I have nothing really new to show.....it's been hot and I've been busy, and spending time with my kids while they are home this summer has been a top priority.

My middle daughter started summer school this week, though, and that has been a bittersweet experience. She'll be starting kindergarten in the fall, and this past spring when we registered her for school, we learned about the School Readiness program that was being offered (free!) to rising kindergarteners. It's mostly designed for helping kids who have not had preschool experiences get ready for 'big school', but Wren certainly could benefit from the structure. Plus, she is really REALLY ready to start school AND she could ride the bus! What's not to like?

New backpack, new lunchbox, and she's happily off! The first day, the bus driver took the kids to the wrong school, but that little adventure got straightened out and all is rolling along well now.

I didn't even cry that first day, when she climbed those bus steps and waved to me from the window. I *was* monstrously choked up, though. My baby!

*deep breath*

One thing I have been obsessed with lately is making fresh mustard. From scratch. You know my deep and abiding love for medieval history, right? Mustards have been around a loooong time, and a friend took a class from another friend who did some of her own research into period mustards. Well, now that we have the technology and the source for the mustard seeds, it's ON! The other day, I made honey mustard, peach mustard, a garlic and herb mustard, and a pepper spice mustard (with cloves and cinnamon!). Yesterday is was dark blackberry mustard, and today might be a wine-infused spice mustard. It's fun, and we have been buying our household meats from a custom butcher lately, so there is NO shortage of tasty grilled and smoked things to put the mustards on. YUM. I might be giving people homemade mustards for Christmas this year!

From left to right, top row: Pepper spice, peach, honey

Left to right, bottom row: plain ground brown mustard, garlic-herb, blackberry

In other news, I have been anxiously awaiting news from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, to see if I was accepted into the docent training program. The person who interviewed me said they'd make their decision and notify people by July 7th.....and it's July 7th! I think I will have to find something to do so I am not constantly refreshing my in-box.

Maybe Noah and I will go to the bookstore and peruse the jewelry magazines. Or to the spice store for more mustard seeds.