The give away.....

Really, its all Jo's fault!  It doesn't take much for my imagination to spark and create the wackiest of beads, something someone says, something I see or hear, but this time it was something I saw.  Jo, created these fantastic beach hut beads, are they not the cutest beach huts ever?  She doesn't have them listed in  Jo's Etsy shop just yet, but I have it on good advice they soon will be, that's if the Craft Pimp lot don't give her so many orders for them that she still doesn't get time, which is where I saw them, and the conversation came round to beach bums and so my imagination was sparked and well..firstly, here are the beach huts from Jo...

Beach huts 07.03.2012, a photo by jowalker2368 on Flickr.

She kindly let me link to her Flickr for them to show up here....and here, is  my take on beach bums...

...and no, they are not modelled on anyone I know!! 

So, this beach bum, is looking for a new home, someone who doesn't mind him in all his...ummm...voluminous-ness!  With his builders bum coming over the top of his 'budgie smugglers'...isn't that just a great saying?  one my daughter is known to exclaim loudly whilst in the spa, causing huge giggles and more flushing of cheeks than is perhaps necessary!

So if you think you are able to give this unabashedly, letting it all hang out guy, a good home, all you have to do is comment in the box as to why you would be a fine home for this chap.  I will choose a winner by the tried and tested method of a pin, blindfold and list of names, next weekend.  Hows that?

Laney x

Dizzy Kitten and her clay treasures.

Now its my turn, *rubbing hands together in glee*.  I am part of a blog ring on  Craft Pimp, which is a wonderful and diverse group of crafty minded people, from glass, like me, to paper, fabric, photography and clay.  To name a few.  Its a brilliant forum, full of laughs and giggles and the chance to meet some fabulous artists.  The nominated victim candidate for this week, is Kayleigh aka Dizzy Kitten and her fantastic polymer clay treasures.  I am going to start with a feast for the eyes, some of my favourites from her collections...

Pirate Cats...Ahoy there sailor me 'earties....

Such a cute froggie

Kayleigh is a youngster on the group, being the baby age of early twenties *spits*, but she definately has an eye for detail, just look at her froggies, more on her webpage Dizzy Kittens fabby pages and her lizards Lizards extraordinaire, and you have to agree, she has a talent for the Polymer Clay she favours as her medium.

As well as froggies and lizards she dabbles in a bit of rather special jewellery, colour and form being, I think, her strongest drive, just look at this beautiful summer bracelet, wouldn't be out of place on your hols or watching Wimbledon with a Pimms and bowl of strawberries....

Yum yum!

Kayleigh does seem to have a bit of a gift of turning sticky lumps of clay - when I tried it it was a disaster! - into some fantastic display pieces, from the jewellery, above and the sculptural ornaments in her froggies, but she also designs and makes these superb wedding cake toppers...

Bride and Groom Wedding Cake Toppers

How unique and original would that be on the big day?  and what a beautiful keepsake to remember it by.

My final picture is of these brilliant drawer knobs.  Imagine your kitchen transformed into a arty collection of colour and whimsy, I think they, and all of Kayleigh's work are brilliant, and to think she is still studying at Uni!!  Amazing, the young have so much energy *sigh*

Drawer Knob Bling

For more of Kayleigh's work visit her website or go to her flickr
Website for Dizzy Kitten aka Kayleigh Sexton
Kayleighs Flickr


Laney x

Group of Froglins!

Group of Froglins!, a photo by DizzyKitten on Flickr.

Just a quickie.....

Thursday March 8th....

Dear Diary.....

Girlie had hissy fit last night and had to pluck up all her nice-ness, took a while, to ask for a lift this morning due to having the violin, obviously I made her wait until this morning and didn't mention the kitchen being spotless before we left, just went to the looe with my book and listened to the gentle sounds of dishes being badly washed

Boy person, home from Birmingham night out with pals - how are my nerves going to stand him going to S.France when I barely coped with one night in the big smoke - Hereford not even being a small spark - I don't know. But, he was good, had fun, and got up this morning for college.

Day plan. Girl to school. Woofits to river. Me to shed. Good Plan....

Girlie to school, she even said thank you...the day is going well. Get woofits ready for the off. Go.

Get to next door - about 300-400yds - man said, 'not a good weekend', thought he was referring to my rubbish bead fair, but he wasn't. Him and his wife managed to write off both their cars. My day/week is begining to feel quite good. Nod to him my sympathies - he is a grumpy arse normally - and advise getting rid of car, his, as its the second crash in it this year, its obviously jinxed, I know this being the clever girlie I am

Get to kissing gate at river, mobile goes. Heart stops.

Boy person. Breathe Laney, breathe....

'Mum, thought you might like to know, I have ran out of diesel, have rang the AA...'

'F'ing idiot' I say, nothing like motherly love 'do you have any money, they will not give you diesel without money?'

'Sh1t' says boy person. This means no.

'Where are you?' say I. He then gives me road names and stuff...what a waste of time, I can't direct the postman to next door and boy person is about 40 mins away. Tarrington, he says. 'Where?' say I. We have lived in this county for nearly 15 yrs

We discuss where he is, me getting more and more confused, until I say I am walking the dogs, he says AA will be there by about 10am, its not quite 9, so I say, right, I will walk dogs, get home and go from there. New Plan.

Meanwhile...

On 6th March, a collection of roof bars sold on Ebay, was booked with Shitty Link. They really are rubbish. Hubby works nights and I can't stay in forever. Leave parcel, outside of garage with note on, with hubbys mobile number on, hubby in bed, any problems...blah blah blah...note on door, next to garage, Dear City Link, collection by garage, any problems.. blah blah blah....

Walk woofits. They have been muck spreading again. Iz rolls, Defi eats, both go in river. The sun is shining, I am still doing ok.

Get half way home. Mobile rings. Iz drops ball, big truck comes round corner, I drop mobile on floor so it switches off.....

Get ball. Turn on mobile. Ring boy person. Engaged. Bugger. Try again. Wait for contact list to load. An eternity. Get boy person.

'Did you ring me?'
'Yes. I need £15 for the AA man'
'Ok, where are you?'
'Bartestree.'
'Thought you said Tarrington?'
'On way back to get money'

Dash home. Get to gate. Note on gate.

'we tried to collect'....blah blah blah...

The lazy little... **(**&() never even went through the gate We have three cars on the drive, how did he know we were not there

Grab note. Livid now.

Go in gate and actually up drive.....rush in house, upstairs, wake hubby,
'do you have any money?'
He is instantly awake.
'Uh, no, why?'
'Ben has ran out of diesel and needs £15, AA man coming round with him to collect money'
Hubby rolls eyes. I am sure he is thinking the same as me. We are so proud.
I have £10 in cash and hubby has £5 in change. Got the £15 for the boy person.

Back downstairs. Get phone and try to ring number on failed collection note. Goes through to automated service, I get no where with that. Fire up laptop and get number to talk to actual person.

Finally get through. Some man on the other end.
'Consignment number please' he says
'What number?' say I 'Your delivery chap never even made it through the gate let alone gave me one of those...I have waited in for three days...I will start from the beginning, I am cross' I warn

Tell whole sorry story of rubbish collection driver/parcel by garage/hubby on nights in bed/mobile number on parcel/hubby is lorry driver so I do know that they actually do have to walk through some gates to collect stuff.

Man on phone makes very sympathetic noises.

'Your driver was here approx 25mins ago' I say, 'he actually managed to write that bit down, can you ring him and get him to come back?'
'Yes, absolutely, not a problem, I will sort that for you'

Boy person comes back, dogs start barking....hubby comes downstairs...what happened to my plan??

AA paid. Boy person now at home, hubby still up, tea drunk, kiln on, collection driver coming this afternoon...yeah right....and to think I had a plan and its not yet lunch!

Just an ordinary weekend....

Our Waitress

Last weekend was the Harrogate Bead Fair.  Hubby and I packed, his car, mine not being able to make the journey due to a dodgy clutch.  His is much smaller than mine, so I declined to help load up what usually goes into a large estate car into his more economical and compact one.  It fitted!! Much to my surprise, so we set off from Hereford around 3pm Friday afternoon and arrived in Harrogate around 7.15pm - too late to off load at the bead fair, not that we were planning on going anywhere anyway, the Premier Inn, we were booked into was where we were staying for the weekend. 

There is something to be said for drinking Rose wine out of the glasses that are provided in the Inn, but small they may be, and yes my arm did have to work extra hard to re-fill the glass more regularly, but between us we managed to finish the bottle, albeit I think I probably drank more than himself...ok, definately drank more than himself!!

Over the weekend, we had one evening meal on the Saturday night and one breakfast on the Sunday morning and our waitress was just lovely.  She was always there with a smile, nothing was too much bother, even when dealing with the most ungrateful, obnoxious old woman - no, not me - at the table opposite, who reminded me so much of the character Diana, from Waiting for God, such a miserable looking woman who truly did think she was at the Ritz and not a Premier Inn.  So our waitress, dashed between us and them.  She reminded me somehow of a really cool cat, so...once home, she was immortalized in glass! 

I haven't had much torch time just lately and yesterday I did manage a couple of little miniature collectibles which will be finding their way onto Ebay this afternoon...

Oink

Cute or what?

Also introducing, Eleanor (named after my neice :O) ), the circus Elephant.  Eleanor is a very clever little elephant, she has been to circus school and is learning how to use the ball in her new act....

Eleanor

One of Eleanor's closest friends, has come all the way from the Alps, just to see her new act.  Bernie, is such a lovely boy and is always ready to share a nip or two from his whisky flask, which is always full and of a particularly fine vintage, around his neck...

Bernie the Saint Bernard

Laney x

ps I almost forgot to mention...I am part of a blog ring, and this time round its my go to be talked about.  I am thinking most people think me as the quiet, gentle sort, a bit like a wall flower, or shy rose, occasionally nodding from behind my laptop, but no, this lot think I am a complete nutter!!  To read what some of the others think about me, go here....

http://kitzbitzartglass.blogspot.com/2012/03/artists-spotlight-laney-mead.html

http://dizzykitten.blogspot.com/2012/03/post-no-7-laney-of-izzybeads.html

http://inkydoodlecrafts.blogspot.com/2012/02/week-one-of-craftpimp-blog-ring.html

Sunshine and smiles

Defi helping out

 Yesterday was such a gorgeous sunny day and I was supposed to be helping the hubby take photos of the treasure he was finding in the garage tidy up, ready for Ebay...I got sidetracked!  Just a few pictures of some of my motley crew in the spring sunshine.  Above, Defi was told to not touch the stack of rubbish, which is going to be burn't today, his little face says it all...'what?'  and did he listen?...

Nope! 

First job this morning will be to collect the burning items from all around the garden!  At least its another sunny day.

It was lovely to see our old cat Megan outside in the sunshine fast asleep, now in her 20s Meg doesn't often leave the house but the signs of the spring sunshine brought her out, she followed the sun all around the garden and didn't come in until after 4pm.

Megan in the untidy flower bed

And finally, a couple of the girls enjoying the sun.  Iz and Claude were paying too much attention to the garage sort out and so they didn't get photos taken, if I had shown my face there snapping away I might have been in trouble with the hubby!!

Frankie

Ever Ready

Hope the sun shines as bright today, looks promising so far!

Laneyx

Shed magic.

My work space

My inspirations

The snow came, and I made it to Kempton Bead fair, which was the first for me this year.  It was quiet because of the snow and bad weather, but nice to be getting back to doing fairs and meeting people, it can be a lonely life in the shed over winter.  Last weekend I was in Poole and it was much better, the sun was shining and the people were plenty, lots of beads found new homes and I met some forum friends in the flesh. 

Thought I would start my blog tonight with a picture, or two of my work space.  Its not too untidy, its usually much worse!!  Above my torch I have pinned lots of pictures to the walls, the joy of plasterboard, including my drawings for my dragons.  The bottom dragon I can re-create in glass now, but the top one...she is a work in progress!

I had some exciting news this year and was asked to showcase some of my flowers in the Soda Lime Times, a monthly e-magazine that comes out from America.  I was chuffed to bits to have my beads pictured amongst some of the great lampworking names in America.  What a treat for the start of 2012.

Available in my Etsy shop
Izzybeads Etsy Shop

Just lately my beads have definately been of the whimsy design and I have loved every minute of making not only myself giggle and smile but I never have a miserable face at my bead stall at the fairs.  The mermaid is just the most recent of this whimsy collection, based on my Modest Goddess designs, my take on the Goddess beads that are popular with glass artists, my mermaid is blessed with a rounded tum, ample bosoms, covered with a sea weed bikini for modesty and a smile.

As well as lampworking, over the winter months I have been experimenting with fusing glass and have had some nice results, just a couple of photos of a couple  of my favourite pieces.

Fused glass dichroic pendant available in my Etsy shop

Fused glass coasters available in my Etsy shop

Laney x