Another Monday...busy weekend dealing with Sue's dad and hospitals, old friends and family visiting, Al's grandchildren Aiden and Gabe checking out the wildlife in the pond, Tracy 2 and Jeff arriving, hot weather and crowded beaches...
I put one of our necklaces here to share. We made it with our charms and beads from our current stash. Speaking of beads, Angie Pederson (pr, web, blog consultant) let us know that Katie Hacker mentioned Artgirlz in her CHA report blog post (thank you)...needless to say, we were happy to see that. While checking out Katie's blog, I discovered the work of Stephanie Sersich. She is a glass bead maker and her work is just amazing...makes you want to get a paying job to buy lots of handmade beads...not only that, it sounds like we would enjoy just hanging around their "office"!


Last week we heard from Paula Hardesty, Sis Designs, (paigertata@insightbb.com) in Louisville KY and she was looking for some charms for a class that she is doing for Stamp Away USA in Cinncinatti August 10th. She will be teaching the bag that is pictured above. What a great combo of texture and color! Check out the event if you are around Ohio! The black and white stamp on the bag is from Teesha Moore...Zettiology.... It is hard to see in this picture, but there are little Artgirl hand charms stitched onto the girl...

Spent time today figuring out where to spend advertising money, discussing new products, Houston quilt festival make and takes, felt ordering, newsletter production, and when to go to the beach.
Hoping to get our Constant Contact newletter together and out into the world this week. Trying to stay cool and move forward!

Well, we made it to the Craft and Hobby Show after a long wait on runways, in airplanes and on more runways due to very bad weather around Chicago. The good news was that we did make it, and we didn't have to catch planes to go anywhere else. We saw lots of friends, sold product, talked to press people, taught a class of 50 people, did a couple of demo's, had a lot of laughs, hung out with Mark Franich (Mr. PaperArtsy on the right, below), did our first video clip, ate bad food and made it home in one piece. Al (grinning above) made her way around the show floor, meeting new people, getting her picture taken, and spreading the spirit of Artgirlz Nation. We were very excited to meet Helga from ARTchix Studio and Traci Bautista! ARTchix is a rich resource of ideas, products and links to a world of visuals! Robin Beam brought us another amazing necklace and new bracelets! We are back home regrouping...resting, getting groceries and making lists for the next events.



We are teaching in Connecticut next weekend and will be putting product together for the quilt festival in Houston, working on our rubber stamps, and discovering Skype. Mark turned us on to this amazing technology that allows us to talk thru the computer for free! As soon as we get a camera, we will be able to have a cup of tea, build empires, and share ideas together while sitting at our computers. So off to take care of the endless lists that seem to spring up everywhere. We weren't home from Chicago and there is a list for CHA Winter...

Went out early this morning to water pots and collect a few Japanese Beetles and the mosquitoes were driving me crazy! There are alot of happy bugs, worms, catepillars, butterflies thriving on the estate! Our pond is also alive with baby fish of various ages, polywogs, frogs, waterbugs, dragonflies of many colors and sizes, and beautiful tropical water lilies. The deer have managed to devour most of our hostas and land lilies...they must be having lovely buffets!
Off to build the nation!

Leaving for Chicago tomorrow morning for Summer Craft and Hobby Association Show. Finishing models, getting details for our class together, packing clothes which is sometimes the most distressing. Will be taking and wearing some of our new jewelry and that is the main thing. Will do another pink hair treatment...Will be good to get there and get on with it! Looking forward to meeting new members of Artgirlz Nation in Chicago and meeting up with old friends!

Had a great chat with Judy Luther at the National Gallery and we will be designing a collage kit for their NGA Kids line. That will be a great project and look forward to working with her again. The website is very cool with lots of interactive arty "games".

My son Don has been doing stone sculpture and I was excited to see his latest piece...

As usual, we are crazy busy...went to the Boston area on Sunday and did a fund raiser for the Germaine Lawrence School at Artbeat in Arlington, MA. Jan put on a beautiful party in her small but mighty fine store/studio space. We, with the help of , guided folks thru the process of making little pins and loved watching the girlz take off and make their own adaptations! And, isn't that the point. I think everyone had a great time. The food was wonderful and the range of spilled glitter was an indication of the creative energy that was flowing thru the gathering!


The Craft and Hobby trade show is coming up next week in Chicago. We are trying to take care of details...finish planning and preparing for our sold out class (we were very excited to get that detail!), demos that we are doing the the "Sewing Pavilion", rubberstamp images to develop, hair do's to finalize, jewelry to complete, embellished clothing to stitch...and working all day today for our friends at the Umbrella Factory Gardens...maybe it will be good to spend the day with the plants! Off to the printer...The sun is out today...time for a deep breath!

Last week we received a very festive gift from Robin Beam, one of our wonderful supporters at Ranger...she put a necklace together using our felt beads, felt flowers and charms, adding beads, sequins, and a few other special trinkets! Tim Holtz is teaching the construction style in his classes...We are as usual very grateful for her time and vision!

I have been trying to get to this task for some time now...It seems like so many things have been crunched into the last couple of weeks. The garden tour seems like it was ages ago. It was a beautiful day, with lots of folks coming through and enjoying all of our work. I was gratifying to share our labor with others who are interested in plants, dirt, trees, rocks, water...speaking of water, our baby fish are very fun to watch!! We put the scary babies together for the tour...power in numbers! They continue to bask in the sun together...


We went to NYC for the Licensing Show. We took some classes...licensing 101, using technology: website, blogging etc, licensing artwork...There was quite a difference between sitting in the classes and walking the floor with the Michelin Man, Nickie Hilton...huge sections for Warner Brothers, Disney etc and a good sized area of individuals trying to sell their work. We had fun cruising bead, trim, and fabric stores..looking for "trends" in color, style, texture... New York is a bit chaotic for country girls, but we had a great time and will attempt to apply some of our newly found information to Artgirlz Nation this summer!