Christmas give away and discount

Shop Etsy from Thanksgiving thru the 15 of Dec and purchase from any of the listed PCAGOE artists and you will be entered into a drawing for one of 3 awesome jam packed stockings. I wish I could win. Everything from ornaments to jewelry to home decor, 1 purchase equals 1 entry. visit my Etsy shop for a complete list of participating artisans.

From now thru and including Black Friday I will be giving a 10% discount-refunded back thru paypal on the purchase of any item in my shop. New lisings weekly.

Remmeber 10% of the purchase price is donated to the monthly EFA charity.
I know I am not the most regular blogger but life is hectic.

my art show

Well I took the plunge and did my first art show this weekend. the 42nd annual Howard Chandler Christie art guild show. You need to look him up on wikipedia woo what illustrations the man did.
Talk about nervous. new display set up , a long way from home and having to decide what to enter my 8 best pieces. So I polled my fellow clayers and low and beold most folks picked the same pieces to enter as I did-all but jeanne rhea. Well I had met her and knew she had been in the community for-well ever- so I put her choices to the top of the list. She picked the same things as everyone else but my tan swirlly frame. So I added that.
Would you believe the judges picked the frame as an award of merit, basically honorable mention.
He even came back and talked to me about my work, that was after almost 20 minutes looking around and talking to me when he came thru for judging. Well he thought I was a professional crafter from the quality of my work and display-well that made me want to float-i thrive on strangers praise.- when they brought the ribbon I think someone pulled me down off the ceiling of my tent i was so thrilled. That was Sunday and now its Tuesday and I still feel all puffed up and proud. The feet are slowing touching the ground.
I put this notice on everywhere that I asked for feedback, but I closed the listing and deleted it on etsy so no one can find it now.
I am going to ry and pull the photo from my flickr stream but who knows if I will succeed.

best laid plans

Well we all have plans. I sure hope somebody else's are being followed thru on cause I sure am not succeeding in doing my dail blog and journal. Life is so hectic. It seems like 10 minutes once or twice a day is too much. I now have this laptop so I can muli task. Torchwod and the internet. I am able to sit in the living room and talk to my husband and watch Tv with him in the evening which is important since tha is when he ends to be awake.
I have a friend that always asks me to help her find something on the net and I need to talk and surf at the same time. My computer is in the bedroom and I sure hate to disturb him when he is sleeping.

creativity. and time

boy you know it sure takes time to be creative, you gotta plan and then prepare and then work on whatever you are creating. In and among all this you gotta work and clean house and cook. Oh yeah and take care of that extra cleaning caused by the flood in the basement.

well I found this new book-well it actually has been out a while to try and jump start my clay block. It's the vein of gold. The big thing it alks about is taking time in your busy day to stop and think and take some time for yourself. Woh what a concept time for me., Anyway I started today with the journal it says to keep. and now I am journaling here as well .lets's see if I can keep it up.

I doubt anyone really reads this I am not a fancy named person just me and wll it seemed like a fun thing to do. be like everyone else in something. As I was eriting the first pages of the journal I could feel my creative juices start to boil, but wait I gotta feed the dogs and work on the house. well If I do it right I will have time this evening for some one on one time with my clay. let's cross our fingers.

Meet my friend Queet

I met this young lady a few months ago during a sneak Attack on Etsy. I bought a pincushion for me and ended up giving it as a gift to a sick friend. It was soooo cut I had to get one for me. Of course it was differnt than the first one. I started looking around and found she made some other wonderful items and wanted to share them. I can't seem to get a link to work but here are her sites Please check her out.

http://www.blackkatkreations.etsy.com

http://caterpillarcottage.blogspot.com/

http://www.caterpillar-cottage.com

http://www.bonanzle.com/booths/moderncherokee

PCCMM retreat Shepherdstown, WV

 The Polymer Clay Collaborative Mixed Media Retreat in Shepherdstown WV.   Talk about an awesome time.  Gotta make plans for next June already. 

We had lots of room to clay and show off our creations. Plenty of good food and room to sleep( HA HA)  It was almost who had time to sleep.

I took every mini workshop that was offered and by Thursday the information and new skills were almost leaking out my ears-Definitely by Friday.

Mini workshops were offered in Mixed media and doll making by the Artist Meta Strick, a full day of polymer claying by Marie Segal-who is one of the people I admire the most in life, Meredith Arnold did book binding and silk beads-who knew you could do this, Dedra Tue Sheib affered Iris folding, Anne Bowers offered paper marbling and PMC.

In addition to all the mini workshops days were crammed with demos from tools to papermaking,

Oh to have been able to be in 2 places at once.

On top of everything new friends and lots of help wherever it was needed.  Thanks to the folks that answered my questions. Everyone freely shared their time and expertise.

Many thanks need to go to the organizers, Syd, Mona, Anne, and Heidi.  They did an awesome job and are already starting on next year.

Keep an eye on the web site and the Yahoo group for upcoming events for next year.

CPSIA

Lots of stuff out there right now.

Found this petition. To ammend change the rule to protect the small crafter. If this is you, you might want to consider signing it.

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/rethinkthecpsia/