I have been working on my Kick Ass List for 2011, things I want to do and things I need to do.  It is broken up into galleries/shows, selling/income, studio, personal, planning/administration and networking. It still needs tweaking but it will help me keep on track.

I have done a couple of repairs. They still excite me and that is great because they make up a third of my work.

One of my students gave me a Christmas gift and I got Antonius organizers for jewelry class kits and supplies. I put them together and plan on loading them today. Need to clear out the home studio of boxes and excess junk. Another friend has offered to help kit so that I will be super organized.

I will be putting together the 10 MI Homes business card holder this weekend. Ihad the pieces cut tthen I had a friend, David Barnes, laser etch the logo on the back piece. They are going to look great when they are together.

My wish for the New Year is that we all have a healthy, prosperous year filled with lots of family time and time for ourselves along with production time. We need to remember to take care of ourselves while we are taking care of everyone else.

All the best to you in 2011!

Tiffany Window

I was lucky enough to get to go to Richmond this weekend to see the Tiffany Exhibit at the Virginia Fine Arts Museum. We went down Friday to the Museum and toured the exhibit that is only going to three places- Paris, NYC and Richmond. What a special show. The pieces were amazing. The VFAM as has pieces in their collection. 

Tiffany Lamps

Nanook guarding the driveway

Meagan and I both finished our federal and state taxes and filed for FAFSA. TGID! Now I can breathe and work on the window repair again. I still need to kit for the Basics class also for session 2. My honey do list is so long and I need to knock things off the list.

Artfire Listings…..send jpgs to Artful Gifts….Amazon account to move books I don’t need….solder the pendants….list the excess furniture on Craigslist….the list goes on.

I have been stretching designs for a new line in PMC, Copper clay and Bronze clay. I can not wait to get it going. I have the vision and think I know where to take. I am waiting to finish up the other stuff so I can invest the time and energy it needs.

Well we left for The Plains around 9:30 and thought we would stop in Front Royal to pick up clay, clay store closed 6 years ago! They were still listed on the web as open. The number had been reassigned and the lady was very nice and understanding after all these years and calls. Pulled into Great Meadow around 10. You could hear the pipes before we got out of the car.

First stop was the Stage to listen to Alex Beaton then off to see the sights. Passed the beer tent… alittle too early to start drinking beer. Next stop was the MacLeod tent, bought a license plate bracket  and talked alittle about Christmas Walk. We walked around looking for Macdonald and passed the whiskey tent, definitely too early for whiskey!  Found the Macdonalds for Bonnie, she just needs to figure out which branch of Macdonald she is from. Some future research will have to be done there. We watched the pro hammer toss. Some good looking athletes there!  Then walked around to see what other fun we could find. Stopped by craft tents on the way to Dogs of Scotland and the rescue groups. We did not bring home any extra dogs, though we thought about it. Back to the games to see the caber toss. There was some guy from FSU tossing for the first time and he was having the time of his life, happy as a can be. He was NCCA shot put champ and it paid off in the hammer toss. Everytime he threw he had the biggest smile on his face. Oh did I tell you he is a Rhodes Scholar also? Pretty wild. There was a great looking guy that we were watching all day. Bonnie thought I was stalking him because I took so many pictures of him. I will post some don’t worry. We did find out he does hold  a world record. The calves on this man were amazing.  And he could throw 56 lbs up and over his back over a bar above his head like no tomorrow.  Gene, another athlete beat his own world record for sheep toss. A 16 lb sheep over 98’ and then he went for another 6’ to just see and low and behold he did it!

Check ou the arms and calves on Mike!

Next stop was the Border Collie Shepherding . These 3 dogs were so well trained. One was a youngster just starting out but he listened to verbal commands so well. I think Nanook would have loved to be part of this event. The sheep were pretty.

Border collie

Lunch was haggis for me and Bridie for Bonnie. The haggis was alittle dry and heavy on the liver flavor. I could only do half. The Bridie was yummy.  It was hard to choose. I did want haggis but I also wanted meat pie. Next time!

Met Martha from TN that does PMC and actually took a class from someone I know at Conference. We talked about bronze and copper clay as well. It was nice to meet someone who does PMC at the Scottish Games. She had some good looking pins with celtic designs on them.

Off to the stage to see Glenngarry Bhoys from Canada. They had a great set.  They had the crowd standing and dancing and clapping along with them.  We met Scott and chatted with him for awhile, His dog has the whitest teeth you have ever seen. I thought Nanook had the whitest but they are not that white and will never be. Scott said he does not brush them, just lots of bones. We got to meet the band and of course got our picture taken.

It was a long and hot day and we had so much fun.

The Glengarry Bhoys with Bonnie and Kim