May Crown

ok, here are some photos as promised. I have a couple of hundred photos from this event, but I dont like to posts peoples photos online without permission, so.... (the fighters dont count - they are fairly well hidden under those helmets :) ) So, first to set the scene - a shot of the beautiful site. Politachropolis did a wonderful job of setting up the site - it looked fantastic Then there was a bit of a warmup melee....

And here is a few shots of Jason fighting (he's the one in black).

We couldnt have asked for better weather (I actually got sunburnt!) and it was a great day. Yummy feast that night too.....

More Beads!

I still havent had a chance to get those SCA photos organised - I will try and do that this week. In the meantime, I have 3 new auctions up....

Busy week.

Jason and I drove up to Canberra on friday night for a major SCA even - May Crown. Jason didnt fight in crown, but I do have some good pics of him in the Rose tourney, so I'll post some of them later in the week, when I have downloaded then from the camera. I have 2 new auctions up on Just Beads this week. For the moment at least, I have given up on ebay. The relist fees are a killer. I went to an amazing seminar yesterday, with a US educator named Marco Torres. He has done some amazing work with the latino students at his school in LA. You can watch some of the the films the students have made at SFETT.com .

Making Some Changes...

I've been correcting some bad eating habits this week. I'm making sure I eat breakfast everyday, and I'm taking lunch to work. My worst habit was buying junk for lunch.

Im drinking 2 & 1/2 litres of water a day, and thats all I've been drinking for the last 4 days.

So far so good - I've even knocked back chocolate this week! :)

On the bead front, I've had 4 of my auctions sell - the rest are up as relists. Here is one I havent posted here yet....

Good News!

I has some great news about my USA trip this week. I have been awarded a scholarship from the ISGB (International Society of Glass Beadmakers) to attend the gathering, which is their annual conference. I was going anyway, but now I get free registration, 1 nights accommodation and some cash towards airfare. In exchange, I will do 10 hours of volunteer work, which should be a great way to meet people. I have had 2 auctions sell this week and 2 not. I am trying out Just Beads, so I don't think I will re-list the ones that didn't sell on eBay - Ill swap them over to JB instead and see how they go. I am very pleased about the 2 sales, but they both when to my lovely friend Lisa, who I will be staying with in July - I hope I can break into the wider market also. So, the new auctions ..... click the pics to see the auction.

Bead Auctions Up!

As you probably know, I make glass beads. As I'm on holidays, I have been getting organised, and being diligent at the torch this week. I have rounded up all the sets I have ready to sell, finally taken some decent photos and am listing lots of auctions in the next week or so. I have 3 up already, and I want to try and keep someting up constantly, so I have to work to get some more sets ready to go... Anyway, these are the sets I have up at the moment. Click the pics to go to the auctions...

Sad news

Well, its been a tough few days here - a lousy start to my holidays. Mystic, the youngest of our 2 dogs, has been very sick and passed away yesterday morning. He was diagnosed with Pneumonia last week, then when he seemed to get worse and we were preparing for the worst, a specialist said that he had a partially paralysed larynx. While permanent, that problem was supposed to be much less severe - the vet wasn't worried at all. But the poor little fella wouldn't let himself sleep all weekend - I think his breathing was harder when he lay down, so he wouldn't let himself.... Yesterday morning he suddenly collapsed and died almost straight away - we couldn't get to the vet in time. So, despite him being sick for several days, it was still a big shock. As all our friends know, we think of the dogs like our kids, so its been a distressing few days. I really miss the little guy. :(

More travel in my future...

I just realised that I have not shared some exciting news.

Most of you probably know already, but I am heading to the USA in July. I have been accepted to present at an education conference over there, well, actually two. So, I am in Memphis for about a week attending 2 conferences, then I am travelling to Minneapolis, for The Gathering, the annual conference for the International Society of Glass Beadmakers. Its going to be an awesome trip. On the way to Memphis, I get to stop overnight in Phoenix and catch up with my friend Lisa. And then hopefully, I will get to catch up with another online friend Julz and maybe even have a bit of a roadtrip on our way to the gathering. That isn't definite yet, just some exciting plans in the making, but it's going to be great! I am going to get to meet so many of the wonderful people I have 'met' online in the last 4 years, since taking up this glass addiction of mine.

Hopefully I will have some bead auctions up on ebay soon. At the moment I am concentrating on making Viking beads for SCA, as festival is just around the corner. After that, I can modernise :) I need to start making beads to trade at the gathering, never mind the stuff to sell to help get me there. But I did have a nice boost recently. An English lady found my website and ordered a bunch of Viking beads from me. They go in the post on Monday!

Tomorrow I am having the Melbourne 'Bead Meet' at my place. I have no idea how many people are going to be here, about 10 I think. It should be fun - we are going to look at photos from Lauscha, and drool over each others beads and the new glassy goodies I bought in venice.....

I know the bug looks a bit creepy in this pic, but he really is beautiful, with sparkly dichroic glass chitin and amazingly delicate antennae...hard to believe he is made of glass.

Not a bead amongst them! I just realised I didnt get a single bead while I was away. Carolanne in lauscha gave me a beautiful vessel, and I bought an off mandrel pendant in Lauscha...but not a single bead!

Fire

I have just realised that if I am going to keep this blog going now life is back to normal, I should be telling you about bits of excitement like last friday night....

On thursday and Friday last week we had a nasty little firebug running aorund our neck of the woods, with several fires starting in roughly the same spot over a 24 hr period. This culminated in a fire on friday afternoon that required 2 water helicopters to put out. All this was happening so close to our place that The Age photographer was taking photographs from our verandah! It was all taken care of pretty promptly, but was a bit too close for my liking. We did end up with some interesting photos though.....

Awesome Show!!

Last night I got to see an amazing piece of amateur musical theatre. Friends from the theatre company I have been performing with for a few years have formed their own theatre company, PEP Productions. Last night they had their debut, with the Victorian amateur premiere of Urinetown, and they did a fantastic job. I cant possibly regret that I wasn't around for this one, as I was having such a great experience overseas, but ....... They have done such an amazing job - the show was tight, funny, fantastic harmonies, good dancing and with great energy. The whole cast should be really proud of themselves. If you live in Melbourne, get yourselves down to Maroondah Secondary College Theatre and see this show - you wont be disappointed!! On another note entirely, Jason is off to the coast today, for his first dive here in Melbourne. He bought all his gear this week and he has been like a kid in a candy store all week. :) I'll get the film from my underwater camera processed soon so you can all see him scuba diving. There are 3 shots left on it for me to get rid of..... Anyway, have to get going, off to the theatre to do makeup. Chooka's PEP!!!