Autumn in the garden, the giveaway and the beadathon update.

 

What a beautiful afternoon.  So Autumnal, bright and colourful.  This is the view towards my back hedge and beyond, the willow in the foreground is around the chicken coop, still lime green, contrasted against the deep red and russet colours of the massive tree that stands over my glassy studio, you can just see the top of the roof.  Behind the hedge the fields sweep upwards, showing the lemon greens, dark greens and orangey reds of the trees behind.  The sun is out casting an autumnal golden glow over everything so that even my unkept veggie beds look nice!

 

 

Defi is here, in this picture to the right, he is basking in the sunshine, surrounded by the bamboo and now fading rose bushes.  We had the first frost last night, it was only a light frost but enough to start to turn the plants so the leaves are now hanging down, ready to drop in time for winter hibernation.

I thought I would use the sunshine to take photos of my giveaway for October.  The giveaway date is the 31st of October, all you have to do is put your name, a comment and a contact email address, in the comment box on any blog entry this month and I will select a winner at random to send the giveaway to.

 You can choose from any of the four drawings I have photographed here, from top to bottom, there is a graphite drawing of a Weinmaraner - those beautiful dogs with the light eyes, a coloured pencil drawing of our Izabel as a puppy, a coloured pencil drawing of a collie dog and a coloured pencil drawing of a spaniel.

All of these drawings are prints and have been mounted with a single mount and are in cellophane envelopes, the originals have been sold, back in the days when I did pet portraits.  I have been renewing my passion for my pencils, I used to draw so much before glass and got them out again.  My beads are based on my drawings and I have never stopped doodling, just stopped large scale commissions.

Finally.  What a weekend!  What a blast!  What a fabulous, exhausting but wonderful time!  Its was the beadathon.  Months of Jolene organizing us all into 24hours of continuous lampworking, making beads for Beads of Courage children and teenagers living with cancer.  The event was done, not without its hitches and laughter, and we reached our target...WHOO HOO..in fact we surpassed our target of £500.00 how wonderful is that?  All thanks to Jolene, we invaded her studio, we used her tools - and there are a few there that certainly got me wondering what she does on her own ;o) - it was a fantastic time and money and awareness was raised for a wonderful charity and cause.

Don't forget to leave me a comment, I love to read them.

Laney x

Count Drag-Ula and the Beadathon......

Count Drag-Ula available in Izzybeads Etsy shop

Now you know the truth...Count Dracula is really Count Drag-Ula, the world famous dragon vampire, seen here with his pet bat...Batty, together they stalk the skies, causing mischief and putting fear in the hearts of every...ok until mum says 'time to go to bed' then they take off the fake vampire teeth, put Batty under the duvet and get mum to read a bedtime story...they rather like the story of Pete's Dragon.


I wont be blogging for the next few days, its Beadathon time!!  The weekend is nearly here and the 24hour marathon, bead making for charity is due to start 7pm tomorrow night...thats 24 hours of lampworking!! 

All this glass bead making is to raise money and awareness for Beads of Courage, supporting children and teens with cancer.  Please support us, even if you just tune in and watch for 10 mins, we are screening live HERE its all for a good cause.  If you want to donate please follow this BEADATHON LINK to take you to the right page.

Have a great weekend
Laney x




 

My first You Tube video

I did one YouTube video this year, I had plans to do so many more but, life just gets in the way! I made a bead, for Beads of Courage, so if you want to give it a go...click..HERE for how to make a bead with Izzybeads


For the picture of the day, I have chosen my stitch markers, cute sheep with balls of wool, great for Xmas gifts, just re-listed as having a good run with them, shame I can't knit really!

Available in my Etsy shop

Laney x

Animal gods, mythology and me.

Goddess Bastet in my Etsy Shop

083, a photo by Izzybeads on Flickr.

I love mythology, but then I love stories too.  When I was a little girl I had a fabulous book on Aesops Fables, and I still have it somewhere on the dusty bookshelves in my daughters bedroom.

Aesop was a Greek story teller and slave who lived in Ancient Greece around 620 - 560 BC, so a while back!

Fables are like our modern day fairy stories with animals being anthropomorphized (my favourite word ever!) 

Myths and legends also tell of anthropomorphized animals, with many gods and goddesses taking on animal characteristics akin to the strengths, or weaknesses, of the god or goddess.

Goddess Bastet, the Ancient Egyptian Goddess of music, dancing and pregant women, she is depicted as having the body of a woman and the head of a domestic house cat.  I found this wonderful link to famous moggies (another favourite word to describe cats, I always refer to our old geriatrics as mogs, which is an old word from the North of England, but that is another blog post for another day...)

To read more about the Goddess Bastet, click this link to the Famous Moggies

Check out my Etsy shop to see my Goddess Bas[tet] - she is known by both names.

A quick reminder that in just 10 days, a few of us lampworkers are gathering together to raise money and awareness for Beads of Courage, Children with Cancer.  I have a donate button at the top of my blog, if you want to donate to this very worthwhile cause.  Be Child Cancer Aware - Beads of Courage 

Laney x

More wet days and nearly Christmas

Can't believe this blummin' weather, its been chucking it down all day, but its still so humid, its difficult to know what to wear, not that that is too difficult in our house, what with the washing machine packing up just as my eldest came home from three months in France..with all his washing!

New machine came this afternoon...hooray...not before the mountain of dirty clothes has threatened to drown the bathroom, the carpet already disappeared under dirty, stinky socks.  I have a massive bag of stinking dog towels to wash, they are really hummin' in the utility room, so much so that I was lighting nice scented candles this morning before the great delivery of machine, it now smells of waxy blackcurrant with undertones of dog!

I have been busy making new beads for The International Festival of Glass in Stourbridge, this coming Bank Holiday August weekend http://www.ifg.org.uk/ its going to be a fun weekend.  I will be there in the Bonded Warehouse, Saturday and Sunday 25th and 26th August from 10am until 4.30pm and also on Monday 27th August, for Celebrate Glass, so I will be displaying my fused pieces, bowls, jewellery, recycled glass bottle clocks and more.

Recycled Cider Bottle Fused Glass Clock

As well as Stourbridge I am getting ready for H-Art, 8 -16 September http://h-art.herefordshire.gov.uk/  I am really looking forward to doing this and having my studio open and lots of visitors...hopefully...I am trying to get the garden to look nice but with all this weather I have been making beads instead! 

Flowers for mum.

Nearly Piggin' Christmas

Queenie the Corgi

Some of the beads will be in my Izzybeads Etsy shop drop by there and have a chuckle!

Don't forget that a few hard core lampworkers among us, are doing the Beadathon http://www.justgiving.com/24hrBeadathon A 24hr lampworking marathon to raise awareness, make beads and hopefully raise our target of £500 or more, for Beads of Courage, be child cancer aware.  Click on the link for more information.

Laney x