Silicone Valley

Yay! It’s the first day of spring! The weather is amazing. It’s about 5:45 on Friday afternoon and I’m enjoying a little down time in the sun after such a crazy week.

I haven’t been able to post in a while because I’ve had a needle, FireLine, and some random shaped/sized hematite colored bead in my hand! So, Ken was right this time and I didn’t finish my art bra in by the March 16th deadline. I knew it was going to be close, but I thought without sleep or food for a couple days that I could have it finished. Reality set in and I decided that food and sleep were sort of a necessity. I did finish the bra Wednesday night though! Yay, Silicone Valley is complete! Well, I do have one or two minor adjustments to make over the weekend, but if the event was tomorrow and the bra entered “as is” then I would be extremely proud!

Here are a couple pictures of my masterpiece ~~

I love to see everyone’s surprised look that I made something like this!

Okay, now off to my next project. I have to come up with a piece for our auction by April 1st. I’ll have to come up with something quick & easy that looks like it’s worth a million bucks!

It’s official. I am now in panic mode over this art bra. I have exactly one week to complete “Silicone Valley” and have it be the most beautiful piece of art I have ever created. I can’t believe how much I have procrastinated over this project! Oh well, I did it to myself. Ken doesn’t think that I’ll have it done in time and he might just be right for once :) Here are a couple pictures of what it looks like so far and I am off to bead as fast as my fingers will let me!

2009 Young Survivor's Conference

I just had a wonderful weekend! I attended the 9th Annual Young Survivor’s Conference in Dallas, TX. I flew up to Dallas on Friday with a survivor friend and then we met up with a couple other survivor friends. There were about 800 women there that have been diagnosed with breast cancer under the age of 40. We attended workshops, networking opportunities and got in some shopping! It was amazing to see all these strong women and was quite an emotional trip as well. Here is a picture of the girls (I'm on the far left) ~~

I finally started working on my art bra. Yep, I only have two weeks to complete the whole thing. Uh oh! It looks great in my head, and I just hope it turns out and that I’m able to finish in time! I’ll post some pictures once I have more sewn on since right now it just looks like a bra!

Last Wednesday, we went to the UT women’s basketball game against Oklahoma State. The game was a special pink themed night for breast cancer awareness. I was actually able to go down on the court with other survivor friends to cheer on the team while they came on to the court! It ended up being a close game and unfortunately UT lost, but it was still a fun night.

I got to see some of my beading friends on Friday. We have a small group that meets on the third Friday of the month at a local library to bead together. I haven’t been able to attend since last fall so it was really nice to see everyone and see all the work they’ve been doing. This group is so full of talent!

I finally decided on my art bra idea. I thought I had a dozen times before, but now I’m about ready to start working on the actual bra. Ken had suggested this idea before and I hated it, but he thought of a clever/cute name and it all makes sense now. The title is “Silicone Valley” and here’s a little hint of the design.....




My friend Theresa and her family brought over a big box of obsolete computers and other components this weekend. Ken and I spent about 3 hours Sunday taking apart everything to get to their inner parts. It’s actually been an interesting project so far. Ever wondered what the inside of your laptop looks like??

Interesting. I have no idea how that happened. How could it possibly be two weeks since my last posting??? What have I been doing for the past two weeks? It seems that I have been swamped, but no completed projects to show. I had this million-dollar idea that just hasn’t seemed to work out once I tried to make it in beads. It’s beautiful in my mind!

We’ve been busy getting auction items and sponsors for our Graphic III event coming up in April. I of course haven’t started my art bra. I am awful! It’s due March 16th and I obviously still have a lot of work left to complete.

I’ve signed up for the Young Survivors Conference, which will be held in Dallas the last weekend of this month. I’ve got my plane and hotel reservations and I’m ready to go! There will be 5 other of my friends and survivors there as well and I’m sure we’ll meet lots more from all over.

I had an appointment with my oncologist yesterday. I have check ups with him every 6 months to make sure everything still looks good and my cancer hasn’t come back. I got perfect results! Yay! I knew I would, but sometimes there is still this little “what if” that sneaks in to my brain and gets me nervous.

Today is Ken’s birthday so I’m baking him a cake right now. Hopefully I’ll be able to get this project idea figured out today. Oh, and I should probably start my art bra!

Superbowl Sunday

What a beautiful day today! I’m sitting outside writing today’s blog entry and it’s a sunny 75 degrees. There are even people wakeboarding on Lake Austin! It’s also Superbowl Sunday. I’m pretty neutral on today’s game. I haven’t been keeping up with the Pro Football like I usually do. I’m a complete fanatic about UT football though! I think I’d like to see Arizona win today. The only reason is because they are the Cardinals and my mom likes those cute little red birds :)

I came up with a new project idea a couple of days ago. I’ve started beading it probably 10 times already. Once I get a row or two done then I go back to the computer and re-design. I think I should have it completed today though so hopefully I’ll have pictures soon!

Off to get in some beading before the game starts!

There was ice on the roads here overnight. Mainly on the overpasses, but still not fun out there. Rush hour this morning was a disaster on the roads. I don't know how people deal with ice & snow all the time. It didn’t get down to freezing here at the house thankfully. I made a homemade potato soup last night to keep us warm Yum!

Yay! I got lots of beading done today. I am so close to being done with this one piece that I started over the Thanksgiving holiday. I’m ready for it to be completed so I can move on to the next project. I’ll post pictures once I give it to Mom.

Mom signed us up for our classes for Bead & Button in June. We are both taking a polymer clay class and a metalworking class. We’ll also be attending the Meet the Teachers evening and Lampworking Madness. It is going to be so much fun. Hopefully we’ll still have plenty of time for shopping.

On Friday we had an organizational meeting for our upcoming Graphic III event in April benefiting the Breast Cancer Resource Center of Texas. The preparations are coming along great and this is going to turn out to be a fantastic night! We’re in the process of sending out requests for sponsorships, art bras by famous people and cool artsy items for our silent and live auctions. So, if you’re a famous person reading my blog feel free to contact me to donate :)

Saturday I went to the Austin Bead Jamboree. I got to see one of my friends in my beading group that I haven’t seen in months. I also got to visit with on of my favorite Lampworkers, Michelle Waldren. She does beautiful work and you can click here to see her items! Here are a couple beads she made that I bought a several years ago.

Of course the pictures don’t do justice to the brilliant colors and details.

It’s a gross day outside. It’s cold and been spitting outside all day. I wish it would either really rain or quit completely and let the sun come out for a while. I’m off to do more beading and rack my brain for an art bra idea myself!

Today has been a good day. I’ve had a productive day in the studio finally. It was 27 degrees out this morning when I woke up so I ran out to the studio to turn on the heaters. Well, this afternoon it has gotten up to 80 degrees so now the studio is HOT! I’m just happy to be beading again. I had a rocky start though with the wrong colored bead in my project! I had to cut apart this piece I’ve been working on for so long. I just kept thinking of all the time I spent just being thrown away! Oh well, I got it fixed and am now moving forward. I need to finish this project though so I can start on some of the other million in my head!

Mom and I are perusing the class schedule for Bead & Button this year. We’re looking at some classes where we could learn something new that would be hard to learn without taking a class. I can’t wait and it’s going to be so much fun. Mom’s worried though that we won’t have enough time for shopping it we spend too much time in classes! I’m sure we can manage. The first year before we went, she wondered what we were going to do there for 4 days and we ended up running around like crazy the last hour before it closed to finish our shopping! That was a few years ago and we’re getting it down to a science :)
I posted some pictures of our little guy on another forum today and realized that I don’t have any on my blog yet so here you go!

Here’s a picture of Ken too so he doesn’t think I’m playing favorites!

Okay, off to bead!