Broken leg and drawing class

Two years ago I started playing ice hockey with a local women's team. It was simply the most fun I had had in a very long time! Unfortunately, during our third practice this season I was skating and fell and broke my left fibula. It was devastating. Not only because it meant I would miss the entire season but because it had major ramifications to the other roles I play in life, such as mom, wife, and employee. I was unable to go grocery shopping, make dinner, take the train to work, or hold Mia's hand. Thankfully, I'm healing well and have been fortunate to have help from family.

I had been thinking of taking a drawing class and took the opportunity to sign up for one now that I had the time and needed time to heal. The first class was earlier this week and it was interesting. The instructor is from Hong Kong and working on an MFA at Temple University. While it's evident that he doesn't have much teaching experience, I think I'll learn a lot from the class. The other students were a joy to meet and make the class much more interesting. My homework is to do 6 sketches by the next class - I need to get busy!

Wholesale Crafts

I recieved this email today!

"Congratulations! Your application for Wholesalecrafts.com has been reviewed and accepted by the jury! Your work has ALSO been accepted into the American Craft Retailers Expo (ACRE), June 5-7, 2010 at the Las Vegas Convention Center."

I don't have plans to do the ACRE show next June, but it sure is nice to be juried in! I'll be working this weekend to get some images up on the wholesalecrafts.com web site and hoping for orders to carry me through the fall!

Bead Fest

Bead Fest Philadelphia was held this past weekend and I went to setup the ISGB booth. Of course Mia woke up with a bad cold Friday morning so I couldn't stay, but there were volunteers set up to watch the booth. Saturday I went back and shopped for a little while and picked up a few things. I needed some need chain nose pliers since I had worn mine out. I also picked up a plastic mallet because I'm stamping words and designs into metal and needed the mallet to reshape the metal after stamping. I'm going to try to work with Resin so I picked up some ICE resin and can't wait to try it!

The show seemed really busy with lots of great vendors and buyers. I had signed up for a class, but it was cancelled so I'll hope to sign up for one next time.

Slowing getting back

It's hard to believe that my daughter is now 2.5 years old! It's been a struggle to balance my time and I've had to put my blog on hold, but now I'm back! I have submitted an application to sell on wholesalecrafts.com and have also started work on an etsy.com shop. Stay tuned as I hope to have some things for sale in September 2009.

BMAC

The Buyers Market of American Craft show was held earlier this month and I participated in the ISGB (Int'l Society of Glass Beadmakers) booth. This show is a wholesale only show and gallery owners from all over the country come to place orders for items they sell in their shops. It was a great experience and even Mia was able to attend (they made me get her a 'baby badge', which I thought was a joke - but I really did have to get a badge for her!!).

here is the ISGB booth and my sample board

Finally here is a picture of Mia on her 3 Month birthday!

ok - here you go!

I keep getting requests to post more pictures of Mia! We've just been so busy taking care of her that posting the pictures is low on the to do list! Anyway, here she is at 9 weeks - photo by Debra (sister in law).

Progress!

I know I've been saying this for a long time - but today I finally finished hooking everything up in the studio and made a few pendants! This is a major breakthrough for me, although it felt as if I had lost all my skills. I only had about an hour to work before I had to go back to take care of Mia, but it was enough for me to get back on the wagon - so to speak.