Lots of Goodies

I did it!  After wishing for so long that I would take images of my paintings, I spent long-awaited studio time this weekend taking images and correcting them on Photoshop, which, both Mikel and I believe, sucks out our souls.  The good thing is, my soul is replenished when I look at my images so it's really no problem!
Here is a much better image of one of my paper pieces that I have been showing you glances of in the background of some photos I have posted.  It looks so much better like this!!
This is an earring I made for my friend Ashley.  I hope she likes it!  (if not, no prob, Ash!  We can work from here so you get exactly what you commissioned!)  Ashley went to my ETSY site and pressed "custom order" where we have been communicating about what she wants and how much she is willing to spend.  She sent in a bid and then I responded.  It is a really great system!

This is a bracelet cuff that my friend Charlie commissioned (not through ETSY because she lives near me in Japan so we have been working face-to-face.  I wish I could work with Ash face-to-face!  I miss her.)  Anyway, I hope Charlie likes this as well.  I will be sending her images today so she can decide. 
This is the cuff bracelet that Charlie first saw which lead to her commission.  This was my second beading project that I made when I was going to have a workshop in Florida.  I am planning to teach one in Matsumoto within the next month or so.  It should be fun and a good test for me to see what works and what doesn't for teaching workshops.  I love teaching and I love art so the combination is fantastic!

Today is a rainy day in Anan-cho.  I have already taught five classes (three in Junior High and two in Elementary) so I am beat to a pulp.  I am getting really out of shape, though, so I think I will drag my butt home and do some yoga before starting on my next studio endeavor (which might end up being me sitting in my studio corner, staring at my pile of craft explosion and then turning on the rest of the Harry Potter movie I started last night.  How much can one girl do in a day anyway?

I just finished a really great book too!  It is called Winterdance by Gary Paulsen.  Did you know that he ran dogs in the Alaskan race called the Iditerod?  Wow!  Even if you don't like dogs or snow, this is a fabulous book about the relationships between humans and dogs and nature.   I belong to an online book club called Shelfari.  It is really fun to be able to communicate with lots of people about books; to get ideas about what I want to read next.

Time to get to a little bit 'o work before heading home.