Adventure Beckons...

Months of planning and anticipation are finally coming to a head, and I am off on my month long trip around the US on Tuesday. The last week has been beyond hectic - realising I needed to write all my reports weeks early, worrying about a health scare and rushing between work and the hospital for tests, Jason going away for work and mum moving out of the house that she has had since long before I was born.... crazy. But I have survived, and this weekend is for me to get all my last minute things sorted, pack, and spend some quality time with Jason before I go.

First stop is Portland, Oregon, where after a few hour drive down the coast with a new 'online' glassy friend, I will be taking part in 'Glasstock', and Annual glass workshop which goes for 4 days and will have 70 attendees. Then its on to Phoenix, and some quality girl time with Lisa, (and Sondra!) a trip to a Tucson bead show and all sorts of 'fun in the sun' of Arizona. Then this lucky duck heads to New Orleans to stay with another dear online friend. I have to keep reminding myself that Deanna and I haven't actually ever met, as we have been friends for years now. It will be amazing to finally meet Deanna, Greg and Rebekah. I am fully intending to go into tourist mode in New Orleans (whilst hopefully still finding time to learn to make marbles!). The adventure continues, and from New Orleans I am off to Tampa, Florida, to stay with Fay. We have plans to jetski and swim with manatee (and make face murrine, another skill I'd love to come home with.) Finally, when I'm all torched out (as if!) I will head to San Fran, for 4 days as a tourist. I am staying with an old friend from Melbourne, and hopefully I will also catch up with some other beadmaking friends while I'm there.

Thanks goodness I have a week when I get back before term 4 starts!

As usual when I travel, I will be blogging regularly, and as I'll have my laptop this time, I'll be able to upload pics straight away too.

I have a lot of lovely new beads to share, but most of them are for gifts or trades, so I might post some pics when I get back. As I hate to make a post with no photos, I'll leave you with a recent pic of my fuzzbutts - Mojo seems to be convinced that Monty is his personal jungle gym.

Canine Update

Life rattles along at a great pace as usual, leaving little time for Blogging. The dogs are changing a lot - Monty basically looks like an adult now, although I do have a few pics of 'Teen' Monty to show as well. The boys are inseparable, Mojo is Monty's little shadow 24/7, when he isn't following Jason around the house. 'Daddy's boy' doesn't begin to cover it. :) I haven't had a lot of time for torching lately, but I did spend quite a bit of time working on some Medieval Rosaries for an SCA Arts & Sciences Competition. It was fairly tedious making so many small round beads, but the research was interesting, and the results looked good. I have my market again this week, and Jason is coming along to learn the ropes, so he can run it for me while I'm away OS next month. My trip is getting closer and closer - time to start some serious planning and to get really excited!! I will be taking my laptop to keep in touch with people, so I will be blogging regularly while I am travelling around the USA.

Show & Tell

Sometimes I find life gets so hectic you don't have time to write about it... other times, life seems too mundane to bother writing about it. Not sure exactly why I've been absent the last few weeks - a little from column A, a little from column B...

So, I have some new Jewellery to show, and a new addition to the family to introduce... meet Mojo.

Monty has grown a lot, although we didn't realise quite how much until we saw him with the new puppy. They are getting along like a house on fire, which makes us a little superfluous!

I am still selling at the Abbotsford Convent artist market once a month, and I made a few new pieces for last months market. I'm afraid I wont have much in the way of new stock this week - the last few weeks have been way too hectic.

Just to finish off, here is a bit of video footage showing the initial introduction of Monty & Mojo...