An Artist ...

I am !
I am an artist.

On a day to day basis, I struggle with my creations.
Rarely do I post anything about what I am working on.
Rarely do I put up pictures.

Yesterday Colleen tormented me in to wearing my new pin -- the one that I started in Sherri Serafini's class.
I had just finished it Friday night.

We got to the convention center and of course the first place we hit after getting in to the show was the bathroom.
I came out of the stall and there was Sherri.
We started laughing and greeting each other.
She noticed my pin and the first thing she said was, "You finished it !! I love it !"
We talked a bit more -- and she complimented it several more times.
It felt so good to have someone whose work I respect, compliment my work.

Later on, during the show, several people complimented me on it.
We ran in to Erica from the BeadArt forum and she also noticed and complimented me. (bg).

At Betcey's booth, several people asked me about it -- one was a little lady who kept telling me that she would never be able to do something like that.
I told her several times she could -- all she had to do was practice-- just keep playing and it would come naturally. She told me that she had to stay with the "honking big beads."
But she made me smile and I hope that I encouraged her.

In the end, my day was made, and I feel much better about myself and my creations.
In the end, I know I must not put so much pressure on myself.

Saturday trip to Beadfest

Friday night, I got talked out of the Outback for dinner -- in favor of this bizarre little local steakhouse.
85 bucks later -- and the food wasn't so good, we decided not to ever go there again.

Saturday morning I was up at the preverbial CRACK o' DAWN -- ran to LabCorp for bloodwork (the 2 doc's are fighting over my thyroid levels).
Back, we grabbed our stuff and off the three of us went to Bead Fest in Philly.
Made great time til we were 15 miles of our destination.
At that point we were reduced to a 5 mile an hour crawl .
The cause?
The state was trimming tree's.
Good grief.
ANYWAY.
We got there -- used our free passes (courtesy of our friend Laura at Torchsong Glassworks).
Let the madness begin!
C was looking mostly for cabs.
I wanted some but wanted some other items.
I bought SOME stuff.
But the cabs I bought seemed to be on the small side.
I just could not find anything (on the medium to larger side) that suited me.

I spent about 50 bucks at one booth on some small ones.
At another I picked up some coral chunks, tiny seed pearls, etc.

The real damage came when I got to Betcey's booth -- the damage was obscene.
Truly obscene.
But the majority of it was in rivoli's, Lacy's Stiff Stuff -- and then beads.
Good lord.
And had my knee not hurt so bad and my feet not been so tired, I would have done more.
After I checked out, I saw something I wanted but there was not enough in me to go back and stand in line again.
Unfortunately, there were several crabby old women in line -- when I was trying to get some 15's they managed to snarl out something about "we ARE in line you know". I smiled my best smile and said I knew that -- but I was just trying to reach some beads.
If their feet hurt I could understand, but sheesh, there is no reason for nastiness.

The ride home was good.
I collapsed on the couch, and rested for a bit.
The worst part was the horrendous upper thigh/leg cramp I got when we got home -- dehydration, thy name is ME -- I didn't drink ANY water yesterday !
Then a shower, half a pill and I hit the bed!
Sleep was interrupted a lot, but I stayed in the bed til 8.

Not much to do today -- the grocery store, and a dash (crawl??) in to Walmart.
Then home and I am beading.

Part of me wants to do some work but the other parts are screaming NO.

Bead Classes/weekend

What a wonderful creative weekend we had.
Colleen and I went to north Jersey for 2 days of classes with Sherry Serafini (serafinibeadedjewelry.com)
It was time well spent !
I came away inspired, full of desire to do MORE, full of ideas, and energy.
And not NEAR enough time.

Prior to the trip, I had managed to intimidate myself with her art.
But after meeting her, I found she is just like most of us.
Such fun!
Such talent!
Such a great person to learn from.

If I took nothing else away from the classes it was to "STAY IN THE MOMENT !"
Stay with the feeling.
Stay with your thoughts -- work them out.
If you hit a big bump -- lay it down and work on something else.
Sherri has lots of "little projects going on" .
And they can be pulled together to BIGGER projects.

The classes helped my color coordination.
They helped me in breaking out of the box and using other items -- other concepts.
She made me look at things in a new way.

We were up at 5 a.m., on the road by 6:15.
Got there at 9:15.
Shopped a bit, and dug right in for classes.

Saturday evening after we checked in to the hotel, we hit the Ikea (just to grab some pillows), then off to Cheesecake Factory for dinner. I'm thinking that I am just about burned out on the Chipolte Chicken Pasta and it is time to try something else for a change.
We were stuffed and zipped (there was no zipping -- we were creaking !) next door to Barnes and Noble.
Colleen wanted a new book-- 2nd day it was out and they were already out of stock! Sheesh.

Our original plan had been to grab a piece of cheesecake and take back to the hotel, but the crowds were too intense.
Off we went back to the hotel and we got in just in time -- the sky opened up and there were horrendous thunder storms.

Sunday morning we were back at the shop -- more bead shopping and we started in again.

We met some very nice people -- I'd like to stay in touch!

Learned new things.
Unlearned one or two also !
Learned to be a better person about some items.

And I learned that I have nothing to fear except myself.