Cloudy, hazy day here with thunderstorms threatening...My sis is officially on vacation and Sue and I will be heading for Portland, OR on Monday. Looking forward to it very much...

In the mean time, we are working on gathering goodies for new kits. They will include for your creating pleasure, a Witch Kit, Christmas Girl or Santa, and Snow People. I realize that summer just officially just started, but the life of one trying to sell stuff, forces a thought process way into the future...thus the snow family is growing and the pumpkins are very endearing I must say. Pictures will be coming soon!! With 5 felt bead sizes there is an endless variety of pumpkin patches and snow people villages and tree decorations!! Stay tuned...

Just a warning...I received a video camera about 6 months ago and have just started working with iMovie...and, I just read that we will be able to post mini movies on this site...look out!
Could take me another 6 months to get it together, but the possibilities are just waiting to blossom.

Off for coffee and AG's work.

Monday morning and it is another beautiful day here in New England...spent a lot of time in the garden this weekend. Here is Victor lounging in the coreopsis...when I figure out how to use my video camera, I have a great shot of a gold finch chowing on seeds, hanging in front of Victor!! Sue and Midge went clamming and came home with goodies. Had yet another raucus Artgirlz meeting, going over products, orders, teaching, shows, a vacation???...time will tell on that one...a lovely post meeting dinner at the girlz house consisting of an informal buffet of clams, cereal, toast, microwave dinners and pudding. Nothing but the best!

We decided to vend at the ArtFest 4 the Soul . It will take place at the Crowne Plaza in Cromwell, CT October 18-21, '07. We had the option of teaching, but since we will be taking off for Houston Quilt Market and Festival right after that event, we decided to pass on that this year. They are offering a great range of classes, a breast cancer fundraiser...make a bag from a bra...and of course good shopping and no doubt a lot of laughs!!!

Did I mention that we will be doing Mancuso's World Quilt Show XI - New England? That show is August 16-19 in Manchester, NH! We have heard great things about that show and look forward to checking it out. It doesn't seem like signing up for this show helps one get thru the 7 year waiting list for their Santa Clara show...but looking forward to it anyway!

Pictured here is more damage from Bead and Button...you will see these little beauties stitched onto future felt projects!!

Gotta go and get to my list...fabric to paint, felt to cut and CHA is looming and we will be playing for a week around the 4th...the girlz have family visiting and Sue and I are headed to Portland, OR...looking forward to it very much!

Speaking of that...a note to shoppers...we will be "closed" during the first week of July! Shop your hearts out until then...and now off for some breakfast to get me thru the morning...or at least to my first snack!

It's a hazy day here at Artgirlz Nation. I'm hoping that it will rain on the gardens today!
I wanted to mention that Barb Schemmer from the great state of Illinois won our Artgirlz drawing at the Bead and Button Show. We had a coupon in the show book and Barb was the big winner of an Artgirlz Extravaganza (Super Duper Gift) Box, a felt Cone Kit, Pock-A-Book Kit, and a dozen of our new Big Wool Felt Beads! I hope that she is thrilled with her package!


As usual, we were busy making samples before the Bead and Button Show and came up with this bracelet that includes Artgirlz Pewter Charms, hand made paper beads, charms made with shrink plastic, wool felt beads and Artgirlz Rubber Stamps...also included "charms" made with printed twill from Creative Impressions.
Some of the components are shown here...I made up all of the dangles before adding them to a chain. Because the some of the parts are paper and felt the piece is very light weight and fun to wear. As we like to say, the possibilities are endless...Making the paper beads is a bit addicting...any kind of paper, embossing powder colors, glitters etc!
Hoping to get a class proposal together for this project...

Off to continue email catch up...desk clean off and list organization!

It has almost been a month since my last post. I hardly know where to begin! We spent a lot of time in the garden, and things were just blasting out of the ground! Nature is quite remarkable and just continues to amaze me. The flower above was the only blossom on a tree peony that we aquired last summer. It was beyond beautiful! There is so much up now, and still weeding, digging, mulching, watering, avoiding the poison ivy, planting....the pond is alive with the fish that survived the last visit from the malard duck, and their babies are about the legth of a finger nail! The frogs are lounging and there are water bugs of many sorts making themselves very busy!

We were busy last month getting ready for our first adventure at the Bead and Button Show in Milwaukee. Trying to decide what and how much to take of everything. I was very excited when our shipment of new wool felt beads arrived! We now have larger (3m) and smaller sizes and they are great! They are not up on the website yet but they will be very soon! We had them at the show, so some of them are out there in the world! My first try with the big beads was a tomatoe pin cushion...more to come! I'm thinking pumpkins, pea pods and snow people!!
I worked on some samples for Bead and Button and put this two level necklace together. I embellished a group of 1cm felt beads with seed beads, sequins and embroidery stitches and put them together for the top row. The longer string is a combination of 2cm embellished wool beads, charms, misc beads from our stash and shrink plastic pieces made with our rubber stamps. I must say that it is quite festive and fun to wear!

It was my first trip to Milwaukee. We flew into Chicgao, rented a van and with the hope of saving cash on shipping, filled it with bags stuffed with our goodies. We also had our new cash register that was padded with charms, and beads! We drove to Milwaukee, enjoying the lovely summer air, the green fields, ads for cheese and fireworks! The architecture around the city was beautiful and the waterfront was lovely. The biggest challenge was finding food. We had delicious Thai food at the King and I!


The show was overloaded with rock star bead makers and volume of over the top jewelry that was walking around was amazing. The shopping scene was overwhelming. I could hardly concentrate on anything long enough to care! We did manage to find a few goodies to bring back to the studio!! And most importantly, we met some new best friends...Paula Best...with a line of rubber stamps and sterling charms...the first thing we had to do was chat about hair dye...and Heidi Viau the heart and hands behind Lillypilly Designs. They both had lovely partners in crime that we enjoyed very much!

Spent yesterday filling out and organizing contracts and proposals for teaching and selling at Quilt Festival and Markets for Houston '07 and Chicago '08, Long Beach '08...and sending off a book proposal to Lark. We also just found out that we passed the test to be part of the Bernina Professional Loan Program, and will be receiving an "aurora 440" to use for a year! Thanks Bernina!!

When I last saw my sis yesterday, she was seriously miserable trying to consume the special tank of liquid for her colonoscopy. Those of you that have been down that road will surely share a shiver....Should be just about over by now...

Off to help our buddy Patrick at the Umbrella Factory Gardens sell plants and pots for the next couple of days...hope to be back soon!