Update and apology!

I am so sorry to leave you all hanging.

I was in a creative blizzard. I could not stop making things. I adore that!

This is a new heart. I am deep in to this series, I call them "hearts of stone".




I am also in to making quite a few sacred hearts right now.

I did a new steampunk unzipped heart with an angel, I absolutely love this one.








There is more too.

We were training a new employee

She is quite friendly.
LOL!!
And so willing to be helpful.
Training this new employee is taking up most of my time and she is very busy and wants to know everything.
The only problem is no one understands her on the phone!



I love this picture of Madi, she would rarely play with this adding machine until we plugged it in. Now she loves it.


I made a couple of trades with people and have been working on those. I can't show you pictures because they haven't gotten them yet.
One is another version of... HEARTS, go figure.

I don't need to get smacked with a 2 by 4 to know I deep in to this heart thing.

I have also gotten addicted to Etsy Treasuries, I love making them. I love looking at them and I love talking to people afterwards. Who would have thunk it?

Here they are to look at.
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4c37362fa4088eef06ae2830/buttwait-theres-more?index=0

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4c3608cf64a98eefd04ea0b2/a-talented-group?index=1

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4c35edeadf336d91e60b147d/holidays-all-year-long-mha?index=2

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4c35df98df336d910e31127d/frankly-my-dear?index=3

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4c35013740278eef0df13bcc/orange-you-glad-i-didnt-say-banana-mha?index=4

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4c34e31eda918eefcfe6316f/a-little-sacred?index=5

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4c34c427da918eef7fe82c6f/slightly-off-center-mha?index=6

I really want to do this all day but I finally had to put the computer down.
There is so much talent out there and some really interesting things, it just amazes me.

I am trying to do an hour each day for clutter clearing and getting rid of things, reorganizing the house, cleaning and making things easier around home. I usually start with an hour and then find I am doing way more than that.
I have a very hard time with deciding which to let go of.
Like how many cheese graters do I really need, could I use them for an art thing, I will think of something to do with this tomorrow and then I do, my recycling heart says don't you dare get rid of that. LOL!! you see my dilemma don't you? And is it really clutter clearing if you move it from your house to your studio?
Life is just expanding and I have a hard time managing everything.

I am cutting back trees and bushes, trying to get rid of the extra there too. I haven't done much gardening this year and it feels good to get outside.
We have been so very lucky here to have wonderful and mild weather and I am just loving it. I am so grateful and I hope it continues.
I have my own personal summer wherever I go, so any extra is just to much.
It is actually cool and nice. We might be the only place that is though from what I hear!
Stay cool all of you!
We do though have a mockingbird that thinks it is still night in the morning with the june and july gloom. He never shuts up. He must be exhausted.

My life has been busy, but my blog friends are never far from my mind.
I do get to stop by once in a while and sometimes even leave a brief comment, but when I look at the calender I realize I haven't commented in a long time. I do read the blogs a lot when I have the time in the morning when Madi is down for a little nap (very little). I also have to cram so many other things in that time too.
What I want to know is "how did I do this before?"
I have finally figured out why you should not have children at this time of your life.
I was beating my self up for not reading all of the blogs and visiting, but I was also finding that I needed to sleep. Not just my usual 6 hours, but sometimes 8 or 9. I am just plain tired when I finally go to sleep and boy do I sleep well. So the sleepless nights from menopause are somewhat eliminated with watching this child.
I apologise for my absence, and thank you for sticking with me in my vacancy, I will be back!

I want to welcome all of my new followers, thank you!
Love and hugs to you all my pretties!!

7th giveaway-it is dead WINNER!!

I am so nervous and Gramma takes her time on these.

She counts all of the comments.

And then she counts all of the extra comments.

She subtracts the extra comments from the total comments to make sure she is correct.

She writes all the names on papers.

She counts those again to make sure the total is right.

She folds all the little papers in half and then folds them in half again and one more time for good measure.

By the time she does this they are all mixed up

She stirs them all up and then counts them again.

Then after that she picks one!!

Chris

you are the winner and gramma says the follow place is on the right,

 she moved it up so you could see it!!

Chris get gramma your address.

Her e-mail is on her profile page.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

I hope you all have a safe and great Halloween if I don't talk to you before that!

BOO!!!

Listen up!!

Yo yo peeps, listen up!

How you all doin? This is your gurl Madi here, relaying the message from my Grams. She is so excited.

I love it when Grams is excited, she is so fun!! We laugh a lot!!

I gots two teef. Check it.

Jacquard Products/Rupert, Gibbon, and Spider is so nice to donate all 12 Cernit kits to the winners. Check out their stuff http://www.jacquardproducts.com/, it is amazing, and my Pops sells it all in his store http://www.clayfactory.net/  He could use the money, otherwise how is he going to buy me all my bling? Speakin on da bling, did you know Pearl-ex Powders comes in 1/4 pound and 1 pound containers?

Pimp your pad, mix it in a clear glaze and paint it on your walls.

Now here goes and the winners are:

LD Watkins

Anonymous Tina G

Sharon P

Kind Clay aka Jenny

Alecia

Melissa

Kathi

Susan

Silly...'ma

RNJenny

Creager Studios

SandiLee James

 

All you peeps need to get together with my Grams if you want your kits. Her email is on her profile page.

She needs your addresses and your names to mail these out.

Word!

Nobody does it better!

I caught Madi in a perfect visual description of how I have been feeling for the last month.

One picture is worth a 1000 words sometimes.

Madi says "Life just knocks you over sometimes Grandma, just take a nap and then play with me!"

I am off to Sandy Camp, my guild's version of a retreat!! I have been to many of these events and I feel that my guild, the San Diego Polymer Clay Guild, does a fantastic job of this.

This is our 11th event, Sandy Camp, and this year looks to be even better than the last, which was pretty damn good...

Warner Springs Ranch is where I will be, living the life of luxury (LOL, everything is relative) and playing with clay and doing all kinds of artsy craziness.

I will be having cocktails in the evening and hanging out with some incredibly awesome and friendly people and it is a jewel in my life.

The hot springs is wonderful and it feels like champagne bubbles on your skin!

The stars out at the ranch seem so close that you could grab them with your fingers. It is really amazing to see, but unbelievable in the dark of the moon!

I love you all, I will miss you, and I will be back soon, maybe the 5th, maybe the 6th.

Do not forget to enter the giveaway while I am gone, I have comment moderation on and I will not end the contest until I get back.

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2009/09/5th-giveaway-trick-and-treat-12-winners.html

Madi says...

I just wanted to tell you all that my grandma is trying to get the next giveaway posted but she and I have been so hot, neither one of us want to do anything but sleep and eat. Stay cool out there.

Madi has an announcement to make...

I love my frog and he has the best eye.

OH and my grandma also wanted me to tell you, her and papa picked the winner for the Bella necklace grandma made.

Grandma and papa are giving away stuff for a year because they are so grateful to be alive and have a business they love. You can read about that here.

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

First grandma wrote all of the names one at a time on the piece of paper.
Grandma usually does this with a random number generator, but she decided it would be more fun if her and papa did this together.
Then she checked them to make sure the numbers and the names matched.

She cut them all up with the big scissors that I can not play with.

Mixed them up again to be sure. There were 38 of you this time and she read to me what some of you said, so nice of you all. My grandma just loves that part.

Some times she gets a kleenex, but don't tell her I was watching her that close. She thinks I am just a baby, I don't want to spoil her fun.

She folded them up real small and

put them in one of papa's coffee cups.

She took the cup to papa and he couldn't get his hand in there, it is really big, so he had to take his little finger and fold it up so he could reach them and then he swished them around in there again.

Silly grandma didn't tell him she had already done that lots.

He picked out one and gave it to grandma and it was...

#13 ARTGALCRAFTS

Grandma was excited. She said this Bella necklace was going all the way to Australia.

She said that her friend Bella's words and paintings travel all over the world in peoples hearts and minds, so it is only right that the necklace should go faraway too!!!

Grandma says that you all should go look at Bella's art work because she makes cute little girls like me all of the time.

Some of the girls are bigger than me though.

Her blog is here http://bellasinclair.blogspot.com/

ArtGal you need to get in touch with my grandma so she can send the Bella necklace to you. Grandma's email is on her profile page.

Oh and congratulations!

my grandma says...

Oh my!! My grandma says there are only a few more days on her necklace giveaway.

http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2009/06/2nd-giveaway.html

You might just want to get your name in there before it ends.

Many faces of Madi...

This is what has been keeping me busy lately!

Too cool for school

Can you tell this child is seriously concerned for her mother?