The end of my commitment to myself!

1st heart I am giving away in the 12th giveaway. Do not leave a comment here, leave it on this post only → http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2010/04/12th-giveaway-you-are-sacred.html
closes on the 5th of May, 2010 6 pm pdt.

Well, this is the end of the month and I have made it.

I have posted every day of the month, even on two days, twice, Woooooooooooowhoooooooooo. I am really proud of myself, but I reject the "having to" of it. I usually always reject that ☺.

I now, though, admire anyone that posts on a schedule of more than 2 or 3 times a week on a consistent basis. You are doing a fabulous job. It takes work to keep a blog going. I know that some are just gifted, and they can pump out stuff 24/7/365, but I believe most of us are just regular guys that do a bang up job of making our blog work.

The writing, the coming up with the content, the photos, the planning, the editing of the writing for interest, grammar, and spelling, the editing of photos for looks and nice composition, the messing with the programs that they blog with, the playing with the computer that is usually their friend and sometimes the opposite, and the making and finding of interesting research and content to attract and keep someone’s, that they have never even met in person or virtually, attention.

I, after only a month, am driven and compelled to clap, stand up and say Brava or Bravo, pat you all on the back, and just generally thank you profusely for taking the time to rock this person’s world on a regular basis. Damn you are good. Thank you!

I follow a blog, which the woman has committed to post 365 days. Whoa, is she nuts or what? I don't think so. She has just set her bar really high. I am cheering for her too, I hope she makes it.

The truth of the matter is, it is good content and funny, compelling, heart moving, and mind stirring all of the time. I am sure there are others out there, but this blog has stuff I am interested in, in this moment. It is therefore only my opinion. I am going to share it with you; maybe it will interest you too.

Her name is Katherine Jenkins, the blog is "Lessons from the Monk I Married",

http://lessonsfromthemonkimarried.blogspot.com/  

Go Katherine!

Flying Hearts

A heart of a different style and color!

My guild, the San Diego Polymer Clay Guild http://www.sdpcg.org/ does outreach programs and one of them is Hearts for Heros .

Sadly the program has hit hard times do economic stress. Go figure!

Let me tell you about economic stress.

Just kidding, I don't want to even talk about it.

Keep looking for the Hearts for Heros program though, because they are rumored to be coming back. If you want to make some you can contact me and I will take them to my guild and they will send them in to Linda  for you. If you have a local polymer clay guild you can probably find out through them. 

Any who...

We as a group get together and make bunches and bunches of little hearts about the size of a quarter, and we do it on clay days.

Well, it is just like me to bend the rules a little and I did get a little carried away, and out came these two hearts. Oh no, I had to take them home, they were too big!!

tsk,tsk,tsk! ;-D

The 12th giveaway- You are Sacred

You are sacred!

On may 19th 2009 I started the giveaways.  You can read about why and the first one here:

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2009/05/1st-giveaway-thank-you-thank-you-thank.html

I am coming up to the end of one year of doing this very soon. I am so grateful for you that have followed and stuck with me. I am grateful for new friends. I am grateful for the knowledge I have gained and hope even imparted (LOL). I believe I am going to keep having giveaways, I find so much pleasure from it. I don't know if I will keep it up at this pace, but I am going to keep going.

This has been so much fun, and in meaning to give back I have received so much. Funny how that stuff works. You are sacred hearts to me.

I appreciate your cheering, your consoling, and your time so much. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

May you be safe,

May you be healthy,

May you be happy,

And may you live with ease.

For the 12th giveaway I am going to give away 3 (three) scared heart pendant beads of my choice.

Maybe when I get some time (LOL), I will put up a picture of the 3 sacred hearts I am going to giveaway.

You have until the 5th of May at 6pm PDT.

Leave a comment...

11th giveaway- speaking of Buddha- the winner

I wrote every ones name on a very small piece of paper. There were 32 of you, with no duplicates.

I folded all the names in half and then in half again and placed them in to one of Madi's little food containers. These things are very nice for holding beads too(recycling tip of the day). They also stack very nicely.

Must save everything... I might use it in the next 20 years. LOL

I then recruited my trusty sidekick to help me.

Look! She is doing what I asked and only picked one. OK, take note please, this is probably the last time I will ever see this. I have the camera ready because I am telling her not to put it in her mouth and I think she is going to that too.

See how she minds, my beautiful little grand child.

Luckily, I wrestled it from her quick enough that the paper did not turn in to a slobbery mess.

Awwwwwwww, no wonder, Sweet sweet Bella http://bellasinclair.blogspot.com/ , nom nom nom!

Buddha is coming to live with you Bella. Please get me your address.

You have 5 days to get back to me or Madi will eat, I mean pick, another person.

"What we think, we become"

"Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment."

"It is better to travel well than to arrive."

"Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. "

"He is able who thinks he is able."

"An insincere and evil friend is more to be feared than a wild beast; a wild beast may wound your body, but an evil friend will wound your mind."

"You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection."

"Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it."

Buddha

 

Buddha

Gautama Buddha is said to be born around 563 BCE and had died around

483 BCE., most modern scholars agree on these dates.


In Buddhist tradition Gautama Buddha's birth name was Siddhartha Gautama, this was changed after he went on a quest for the truth behind life and death. After reaching enlightenment while sitting beneath a tree, Siddhartha Gautama was able to claim the name of Buddha. Gautama Buddha is the historical founder of Buddhism.


All information taken from the Ascension Gateway website http://www.ascensiongateway.com/quotes/buddha/index.htm

And from the Brainy Quote web site
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/b/buddha.html

Both of these websites have wonderful information and quotes of all kinds.

Taking shape-changing ideas and altered directions- part 15

Another Heart

See other hearts here.

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2010/04/taking-shape-changing-ideas-and-altered.html

and here

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2010/04/taking-shape-changing-ideas-and-altered_23.html

and here

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2010/04/taking-shape-changing-ideas-and-altered_24.html

Taking shape-changing ideas and altered directions- part 14

A new cabochon or brooch

"Thoughts fly away"

Do not forget the 11th giveaway

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2010/04/speaking-of-buddhapart-2-and-11th.html

it is over today at 6 PM PDT!

Taking shape-changing ideas and altered directions- part 13

Another cabochon or brooch

The many faces of time

Do not forget the 11th giveaway

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2010/04/speaking-of-buddhapart-2-and-11th.html

it is over on monday at 6 PM PDT!

Taking shape-changing ideas and altered directions- part 12

Ok, this is sacred heart meets steampunk!

I am blurring the lines now!

Do not forget the 11th giveaway

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2010/04/speaking-of-buddhapart-2-and-11th.html

it is over on monday!

Have a great weekend everyone.

Taking shape-changing ideas and altered directions- part 11

2 new hearts

See other hearts here.

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2010/04/taking-shape-changing-ideas-and-altered.html

Happy Earth Day!

You hold the earth in your hands.

Please take care.

Hold it in your heart.

We are all one.

From my heart to yours

Here are the sacred hearts I have done, including the first three too!

You are sacred to me!

Off on another track and a look at the mirror

I am off on another track. I love the sacred hearts I have been making and I am making more. I didn't get a chance to get a picture of the new ones I had made yesterday.
Maybe you can see why I have a hard time standing still long enough to photograph anything when I am following my muse. Sometimes she will let me stop and take a breath and sometimes I am puffing real hard just trying to keep up with her.
I have learned after all of these years that if you have the chance to follow a muses lead, you will be happy(and tired) coming out the other end. Your house might suffer, your family might not like you anymore, and you may need a shower and a good nap, but you will be happy.
I am so grateful to be able to, most of the time, follow my muses lead, it is very important to me. My family having known me for so long, is very tolerant, maybe not happy, but tolerant. ;-D It must be hell living with an artist sometimes. Or maybe it is heaven. Anyway, they do put up with a lot. I am grateful.

Having no pictures of my latest, I dug through my files to see what I could put up today.

I am putting up some earrings I made probably back in 1981-1982, maybe earlier. No laughing, everyone starts in exactly the same place, the beginning. I started there too. I just don't usualy show anyone anymore. ;-D

I think it is a natural progression of working with oven bake clay to play with the scraps, they are so beautiful and the colors are fantastic. With the group of people that started in beginning of polymer clay, we all did this playing. After all, there were no instructions at that time.
Well, one of the things that happened when you cut a scrap ball of clay in half is...
each side of the cut would be a mirror image of each other.
I am telling you kids, I thought this was hot stuff back then and could spend hours doing this. There were also real interesting pictures inside too!
I called them mirror or mirror image beads. Such a descriptive title, eh?

The pair on the bottom right are just scrap coils twisted, that were rolled in to snails.
So get out your clay and start at the beginning. Get to know it first. Make snakes.
Have a great day and be sure to play!

Monday- weekend update

I have been trying to post everyday this month(harder than I thought) and I got a post up yesterday, but not until late in the day, it is good though and about my sister friend Ces' gift to Madi for her first birthday, please go see, some visual eye candy there http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2010/04/madis-birthday-suprise.html .

I slept till 8 am on Sunday, that is like noon now days. Went to see a friend, Lindly http://www.lindlyhaunani.com/ about 12:30pm, she was teaching a class here, at Quilter's Paradise http://www.quiltersparadiseesc.com/ the owners let our guild SDPCG, the San Diego Polymer clay guild http://sdpcg.org/  reserve the classroom for visiting teachers when they come. A wonderful classroom and very nice people are there and if you love to quilt or work with fabric and you live around here, this is the place to go!!  A gorgeous, clean, and huge store.
It was great to see Lindly, she looks good, age doesn't seem to be affecting her as bad as moi. We have known each other for a very long time. She lives on the other side of the US though, and I am glad I got to see her again, it has been too long.
Also so good to see all of my guild buddies again too! We have a great guild and awesome people here in San Diego, we are very lucky!

On Saturday, I went to play with a friend. I very rarely get away to play and I needed to. Tina http://ktdidclay.wordpress.com/ is fun, she has a wicked sense of humor and is a very sweet person. She took me to a place called Summers Past Farms http://www.summerspastfarms.com/  oh, what a fun day we had, I got a little sun, walked a craft show there (we had no idea it was going to be there, pleasant surprise)  with Tina and her darling daughter N, some people were playing live music and it was good. Bought a lemon geranium with Tina, her dad is going to make some cuttings for me. Oh geesh, does it smell divine! Smells more like key lime pie than lemons to me.

They have a soap making shop there with all kinds of goodies and soaps that they make right there. I bought a patchouli and orange bar, heavy on the orange and light on the patchouli, just perfect, yum. Little too old to be smelling like a hippie now days. LOL!! But just enough to make me feel grounded and good!
They have a sweet pea maze, that was awesome, there were llamas walking around, I had a coffee, yum! I haven't been drinking it because it makes me crazy and mean. I love it though.

We did some clay, I made these. I love them. Tina had some wire she had bent, making all kinds of shapes and I found one, the turquoise one and used it on the heart on the left. I wanted to make more so I bent some more. I made them a little bigger and thought they were just what I was looking for, I like when the bail becomes an integral part of the design. I love sacred hearts and I find myself making them all of the time. I see these beads hanging from the longest loop! Thank you Tina, for the great piece of wire.
We went to Sombrero's http://www.sombreromex.com/  I think they have they best veggie burritos for a fast food place. There are 14 locations in San Diego area. Another yum!
I am feeling so indulged! Whew, I needed that!
Do not forget the Buddha shrine giveaway http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2010/04/speaking-of-buddhapart-2-and-11th.html, I have added a giveaway permanent page to the top of the blog under the new banner up there so I don't have to worry about somebody missing it, it is called CURRENT GIVEAWAY. Check that for updates all of the time.

I had a great weekend it was just a little short, I have so much more to do!! LOL!
Living with a one year old is a blessing, but man are they fast!
Have a great week everyone! Blessings and magic all over all you all.
Love and hugs.

Madi's Birthday Suprise

Madi got a special gift from one of my sister friends, Ces, on her birthday. I am going to show you some glimpses of this fantastic picture and if you want to see the whole thing you can go here.
http://cesandherdishes.blogspot.com/2010/03/happy-birthday-madi.html

This is the birthday girl herself.

With butterflies from beginning...

I can not even begin to explain how wonderful this drawing is. I love Ces' work and I am drawn in to the depths of it by the minute detail.

...to end and in between

Well, to see it in person took my breath away. She pumps these babies out like it is nothing. You would think there would be smudges as fast as she works, but au contraire mon ami!
Click on the pics for a little bigger view of mastery at its finest!
Thank you Ces! I am so honored to have a piece of your art. Yes, what you see is true. Even though Madi loves this picture that you have drawn and giggles with delight when she sees it, she also love love loves to eat paper and I think I should keep it safe for her until she is about 33. My eyesight should be completely gone by then!!
The note on the back is divine. Bless you sweet one for your kindness.

She is brewing up another storm of goodness, do not miss it!


http://cesandherdishes.blogspot.com/

And do not forget the 11th giveaway here.
http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2010/04/speaking-of-buddhapart-2-and-11th.html

Speaking of Buddha...Part 2 and the 11th giveaway

I think I have figured out how to hang the Buddha shrine.
I bent a 12 gauge copper wire into shape and then gently (oh maybe not so gently) pounded it flatter with a hammer.
I drilled through the board and made large jump rings out of 14 gauge wire.

You can see the whole thing here
http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2010/04/speaking-of-buddha.html

I hung the hanger through the jump rings and tah dah!
It is very simple and I like it!
If you would like a chance to win the Buddha shrine leave a comment on this post only.
Tell your friends.
The giveaway will close on the 26th of April at 6 pm PDT.

Just thought I would sneak that in there. Hee hee! Have a great weekend dear ones! Welcome to all my new pretties. I appreciate your follows. Thank you!

Cannon's Birthday- Part Deux

WARNING this post is photo intensive!

Well, this is part two from Cannon's birthday. I almost posted the cute picture of him again but decided not to. You have to go here to see it. http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2010/04/cannons-birthday.html

I added the characters to a grass pad that is about 1/2 block of Cernit Green and 1/2 Light Green marbled together or 2.2 ounces total.

They seem to like sitting on the grass, it is probably way better than that foil covered cardboard.

Next I made the letters for Cannon's name. They are just rolled out coils that are about 3/16" to 1/4" in diameter bent in to the letter shapes. I lay the letters on to the grass to see if they will all fit well before pressing them in to place.

I decided when I laid the letters out that I would like them better if they were elevated a little from the base.
So I rolled out  1/2" coil of the green colored clay and place the coil across the front of the base.
I pressed only on the front of the coil when I pressed it down so that it would be lower in the front than in the back.
I then placed the letters on top of that coil and gently pressed them in to place.

I have a rubber stamp with my name on it. I stamped this in to the light green and placed it against the blue monster. Then dated it with marking '10 on it.
I placed a cone of yellow and red together and twisted them together then rolled that cone on my work area to smooth it to make the party hat.
The top of the party hat is just little tiny cones placed on the tip of the hat.

I added a giant  number one to the blue monsters right side, he holds this with his hand.

Here is the way it all looks with the additions.
I am going to add some more things now.

I added a package and tied it with a bow.

I added another package with a bow and a banner to write on to the front of the letters.

Then another long rectangle package to the side where the baby bird is and then added a purple ribbon and a bow to that!

Here is the finished piece and it is baked. I have written on the banner and this also a better glimpse of the colors.

A closer look!

The back side of the piece and the blue and red monsters too.

This is the piece from the top and the right side of it.

This is the front and a closer look at the characters.

This is another view.

I signed the bottom from all of us.

A final look, a birds eye view.
Happy 1st Birthday Little Cannon.
Have a wonderful day!


The size of the base is 5" across and the height of the piece is about 3 1/2".
The weight of the piece is 10 ounces that is almost 5 blocks of clay.

Cannon's Birthday

Madi's little friend Cannon is having a birthday party this weekend. You may remember Cannon from this picture at Halloween. http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2009/11/madis-1st-halloween.html

I wanted to do something special for Cannon. This is the group that my daughter and I did Lamaze with when she was pregnant with Madi.

My daughter and Madi have celebrated a lot of firsts with these kids and their parents. I am so glad they have all stayed in touch over the year.
It is so fun to be in on this from the beginning!

They are a great group of kids with kids, lol!!

They are very nice to me and Cannon's dad is the one that pieced a computer together for me when I worked mine in to the ground and had no money to buy another one, and because of him I was able to keep posting and commenting.

I am so grateful for that!!

Cannon's theme for his Birthday revolves around little baby puppets.

I love little baby puppets.

I wanted to make them in a ring, so I put this cutter there.
Here are the legs to the first one, can you guess who it is yet?

Here he is finished, with the next guy coming to life besides him.
Awwwwwwwwww so cute.
That bird thing in the back though looks like he is coming out of the desk.

Now the bird looks better. If you will notice they are sitting next to each other.
Forget the ring of characters.
I am always going back and forth with how I want something to be in the end.

A pair of legs, I bet you can guess who this is, right?
Well, maybe not, but I will tell you he is my favorite monster and he loves to be tickled.
Sorry these pictures are not so great! I have to work on these in the late hours of the day.
With a one year old running around the place, it is very hard to get much of anything done during the day.

I kind of let the pieces fall where they may. They tell me how they should stand together.
I know, sounds crazy, yep!!
They are looking very cute together though.
Luckily I work pretty fast, don't want to give them a chance to change their minds.

Here is a view from different angle.

Here is another character coming to life.
They seem to greet each other as they come alive.
Is it?...

Yes, it is!
"ME LOVES COOKIES!"
Oops, looks like the red baby grew a nose too!












To be continued---------------------------------------------------------------------------->