Happy Solstice

First thing,

Lyd came in with a hurt rabbit.

After work

 potato farming @ community garden



The kids let me drag them off to the lake,

To practice our circus moves for when we run away.



Sunshine

Starshine

The light of my life

Marshy

I like butter.

And her :-)

What a trip!

Here is a photo record of my trip to see my dear friend Debra last week.  This is us.  I love her.

What's new?

Double sided Blue Burst Pendant/Connector
Things finally settled down around Artisan Clay land and I was able to get a few new beads listed in the etsy shop this evening.  

Side 2 of the piece above

With such a busy spring, It feels like I've needed to square away a lot of details this week in order to keep it all running smoothly.  It seems like squaring things away has included tons of time emailing and phone calling and working out schedules with a lot of people.

Blue and Turquoise Recycled glass pendant/charm

I booked plane tickets for 6 to go to Kansas City for Easter weekend, and I booked a plane ticket for myself to run away to Oregon for a week in May.  It feels great to have that all settled.  I almost have all the arrangements made for my children while I am away. 

Set of 2 bronze/black rectangle connectors

I still don't have a Oregon Trunk show lined up, but I am talking to someone.... I mailed beads out to Kansas City on Friday and I got word today that they have arrived. 

Blue and green Flattened oval
Some of you that know me on facebook might know that I have a Girl Scout troop for my 2 daughters.  This weekend we went on our first camping trip.  The girls are mostly in second grade and my younger daughter is in kindergarten.  It was crazy this week trying to figure out what I needed to do to get ready for a camping trip with 10 little girls....  Because I never would have thought that I would at this place in life, but I am.

Aqua/Burgundy/Black Connector pendant

I am trying very hard to do a lot for my daughters this year.  I have done fine art and bead shows since I was pregnant with my oldest and that made me very unavailable for them on the weekends.  This year I am trying very hard to do my work in a way that also lets me do things for them socially....

  I am really lucky to have been matched up with a wonderful lady as co-leader.   We are just there to build some positive happy little ladies and give them some tools for life :-)  and just let them be them :-)  And they are so freaking cute in their bunks keeping each other up at night and cleaning latrines and cooking for each other and roasting marshmallows.  It's been a real learning experience for me.  I am learning a lot about different personalities.  There are 2 girls who are always appearing right by my side.  My co leader is a therapist-- so that really helps!  I'm often asking her what to do with the kids emotional issues and she is so great for building them up.

Stone age Stoneware Clay Disc Beads

We are taking the Girlies out next month for a 2 night camping trip.  This time it will be all the Girl scouts in our area at the camp at once.  There will be @250 ladies there and we are supposed to run an activity for all of them.... with the theme of Colombia....

Double Sided Bronze Pendant

And that is when I started emailing with my Zumba instructor trying to hire her to work all of that out for us......  It turns out there are a few traditional Colombian dances.... Because... what the heck are we to do with 250 kids running through an activity station in a day.  Yeah... I'm not really sure about that one.  I may be MIA around the end of April while I try to figure that out.

Side 2 of Bronze Pendant
Our troop was also asked to start seeds for a veggie garden that we are supposed to plant for our local food pantry... I don't know how that is going to work out either.  Wish me luck! and if you have any tips PLEASE let me know :-)   I have not had much success starting seeds indoors in the past.

Slate Blue Pendant

So -- this explains why I have been a neglectful blogger these past months.  Planning trips and trunks shows and doing the things I can for my girls. 

Powder Blue Connector Pendant

I still haven't planted my early spring veggies in my own garden.  I did get a few potatoes in the ground and I moved my strawberries to a sunnier location, but I still need to figure out how to trellis my peas so that I can get them started.

Teal and Powder Blue Charm

So that's what's new!  Life!  Family! 

Do you plant any early veggies?  Which ones? 

Welcome to my Work, Studio, Home, Garden!

First things first! Welcome to my Blog! Welcome to my Studio, my home and my garden!

I am super happy to be participating in the Beads-of-Clay Blog hop again!

 Don't forget to stop by all the "live" blogs from 1-4pm today for their "live" giveaway 1/2 hour windows! A few of us are participating in the hop, but are not doing the "live" posting.... in these giveaways, you have a longer comment window in order to be entered to win. My giveaway winners will be announced on Monday.  We all have specials going on in our online shops for a limited time.

Use coupon Code BOCOPENSTUDIO gets you 25% off your order and special Spring Cleaning HANDMADE BEAD SURPRISES IN YOUR ORDER

Here is a little sample of some of the beads that I make.  I use mostly stoneware clay, but sometimes work in porcelain or whatever suits my mood...    This week I have been working on a few new pieces inspired by my friend and jewelry designer Staci Louise Smith.

and this leads me to Giveaway #1.....  Hot out of the kiln...

A lovely spring flower.  Comment on this post for a chance to win the piece shown here.

The kiln shed is a mess from a winter of working to load and unload the kiln, but the cold and my schedule chasing me out while leaving tools lie.  Mice have made their winter shelters and yard tools and summer toys are piled high.   

My Daughter Sonya (6) is almost finished painting her Enormous Fairy Statue.  We often work together.  She tells me that one day she will have a shop and sell my work.  That would be a lot of fun. 

And also still warm...

My second giveaway!   Again leave a comment below... leave one comment leave six comments... I don't care.  Let me know you came :-)

I have been feeling the Spring coming and I feel the pace of life changing.  My messy home has been driving me crazy and stubborn as I am, I have tried to find a way for everyone to better clean up after themselves.  I totally understand that I make HUGE messes in all the crazy things I do..... and that's more reason for everyone else to clean up after themselves, right?  Picking up after myself alone is a full time job!  ha!  So here's the improved system... See the different cube bins?  Everyone has one, even the dog. (Our dog Samson's box is turned around so that he can't open it with the handle-- because he was quite obsessive about doing just that) This replaces the large containers to the right which used to house all the winter hats, gloves etc.. for the entire family.  Maybe we can handle keeping track of personal property better than rooting through communal property?  Maybe?  I hope so.

  The kids and I are still working on their room.  My goal is to get rid of the toy box.  We have a place for dress up clothes, a place for each girl's jewelry and make up, a place for Lego's and barbies and horses... and we're still working on it.  I have to wait for more shelves to arrive at the store in order to finish the job.

Spring means gardening to me.  I grew the beans and potatoes picture last year and I will replant with them again this year.  I'll be outside planting peas and sugar snaps and snow peas and lettuce and bok choi and potatoes and onions the weekend after St Patricks Day.  I might not be able to wait that long to start planting onions.  And there is starting seeds inside as well.  Very soon indeed!   I love planting veggies! I plant my yard to the max and my mom and I have 2 community garden plots.  This year I will also be planting a garden that is grown for a local pantry.  I don't know where I am going to find the time, but I always do in the end.

I did a little experiment this winter... I planted and relocated a few things as I was cleaning out the garden for the winter.  I put a sheet of glass over the bed and I peeked in every once and a while to see what happened.  Even in the snow and not shoveling the snow off the glass for a week or more sometimes-- things still grew.  It was great to have these little babies out under the snow.... but a little rodent found them and moved into my little salad bar during the snow storms and ate quite a bit of what had grown bigger.  It was a fun experiment and new sprouts keep popping up even now.  I took the pictures here yesterday.

If everything goes well with the family today, then I will be listing the extra flowers pictured above in my etsy shop while we do our normal Sunday night routine.... PBS-- Nature and Masterpiece Theatre... I don't even know what they will be airing this evening, but I hope to be relaxing on the couch and listing on etsy by then :-)

Thanks for stopping by!  Thanks for your comments!  I don't always get back to everyone who comments, but I do really appreciate when you let me know what you think!