empty bowls event 2010

The Empty Bowls Event is a fantastic fundraiser that I have been blessed to participate in for the last 4 years. Unlike many ‘fundraisers’, this one directly benefits the food bank for my local area in Texas.

I love knowing that the dollars that I spend and the time and efforts that I donate go to help my neighbors here in Tarrant County, not somewhere else farther away. And boy do these folks have it down! They can actually feed somewhere around 30 people for every $5 donated!! It’s just another example of those simple miracles that are around us, if we care to take a look.

Anyway, the Event is this Friday, Feb. 19 from 11 am to 1:30. For more information and to buy your ticket, please go to this link: TAFB.ORG. Your $35 ticket gets you in the door to sample foods from more than a dozen fancy-schmancy restaurants AND your choice of a hand thrown, hand painted bowl! (Last year there were more than 2000 bowls to pick from so come mentally prepared for some tough decisions…)

There is also the ‘Bump’ Table is for the bigger, groovier, more wonderful-er bowls. You can either swap your smaller bowl plus an additional $30 for one of the Bump Bowls or you can selfishly keep your smaller bowl and buy the bigger one outright for $65… That’s the option I usually go for.

This year I was asked to donate two pieces to either the auction or the Bump table and I’ve showcased them in the gallery below. Hopefully I’ll see you there, circling the bowl tables for the 20th time, looking for just the right one that’s calling your name…

my cross obsession

You could say that I’m kind of obsessed with crosses… But that’s not a bad thing, right? After all, I’m definitely not alone because there’s about a ga-jillion of other obsessed cross collectors out there too!

But from this wonderful obsession has grown my two true Signature Lines: my colorful fused glass and ceramic mosaic wall crosses and my bright and vibrant dichroic fused glass cross pendants. Both have inspired a very large following, something that’s incredibly satisfying for me personally. Even better though is knowing that my little ‘God idea’ apparently has His blessings also.

But now I’m super excited to announce new additions to both lines! Both using the same brand new art medium, Bronze and Copper Precious Metal Clay.

Look for pictures very soon of

cranky pants and piles of poo

I’m a really big Sports Nerd. Not sure how that happened since I don’t have a Y chromosome but please don’t yank my Girl Card, I do still get pedicures so that should count for something …

Anyway, because I’m a Sports Nerd, I’m kind of in a mood right now. Yes, I am Officially Pouting and have changed from my Party Pants into my Cranky Pants. My smile is completely upside down, it’s too cloudy to see the forest for the trees and the silver lining is raining on my parade. The darn glass is not only half empty but that sucker is broken! I am Not Happy and I Know It, so there is definitely no hand clapping going on around here.  (Wow, that has got to be a new record for mixing metaphors in one paragraph!)

What on earth is my problem, you ask? I watched the Cowboys-Vikings game. (Of course I use the term ‘game’ loosely. I’m not even sure that I’m willing to call what that was a game, but that’s a whole ‘nother blog post..) The only good thing that came out of that 3 hours for me is my idea for today’s post. Not to kick a Cowboy when he’s down, but it sure looked to me like they got soooo focused on Their Big Plan that they didn’t know how to react when Their Big Plan turned into a Big Pile of Poo… And they went down in flames. Crash. Burn. Squish. In contrast though, the Vikings, who had a lousy first series, made a couple of adjustments in Their Own Big Plan and came back to unmercifully pound my ‘Boys. Hence, the Cranky Pants I’m wearing.

But what does this have to do with networking or business? Nothing really, but watching the Cowboys be unable to adjust their Big Plan while on the move got me to thinking… How will I know when to adjust my own Big Biz Plan for 2K10 when things are moving fast?  Well, since I don’t want to end up like the Cowboys, I sat down and developed my Business Poo Pile Avoidance Plan.

I’ve told you that I have been spending some serious time Pondering Serious Business Thoughts, including various Unpleasant Business Scenarios. This is because I find that it’s a help to me to Anticipate the Worst Things That Could Happen in each of the different areas of my business then make a plan to fix or avoid them altogether. Now I’ll admit to be gifted in this area, my sisters don’t call me the Queen of the Worst Case Scenario for nothing, but most of my abilities were honed in my 12 years as an RN. (Yes, I actually had a Real Job once….scary thought, I know.) But think about it, if you are sick or injured, do you really want a nurse around who hasn’t thought of all the possible negative scenarios and already formed a plan to address each of them? (I’m thinking, NO!)  So sometimes it’s  actually a good thing to be a pessimist.

So, once I identified the Worst Things, I needed to Determine My Stop Signs. It’s not gonna help me much to try to to turn around a problem with the Right Thing if I don’t Stop Doing the Wrong Thing first. Without some type of concrete parameters to measure my progress, I don’t have a clue how I’m really doing so these Stop Signs are early warning systems to tell me when to hit the brakes and make adjustments. I used things like setting conservative sales goals for different products and deciding what minimum traffic stats I needed for my newsletter and blog. If I don’t hit those numbers within a certain length of time then it’s time to jump immediately into….

Implementing My Brilliant Plan of Action! Because I’ve already spent time anticipating them and writing them down, I have a specific reaction plan for each of those Worst Things That Could Happen. They aren’t very complicated or detailed plans, just very specific. (I prefer the K.I.S.S method anyway…. Keep it Simple, Stupid!) and I designated a specific reaction for every Stop Sign: throwing a sale, advertising specials on slower moving items, prize offers for my blog readers, Facebook Freebies and Newsletter Specials for my workshops and projects are just a few that I came up with.

So in a nutshell, here’s my basic four step Business Poo Pile Avoidance Plan. Feel free to steal any of these ideas for your own use.

Step One: Anticipation
Step Two: Stop Doing the Wrong Thing
Step Three: Do a Different Thing
Step Four: Repeat as Needed

As for the football thing, I guess it’s as good a time as any to be a Saints fan. My Cranky Pants are too tight…

Buff-Speak

My husband has mentioned a time or two that I sometimes seem to speak a different language than “normal”  people.

Hmmm. I think he may have hit that one right on the head.

I suppose that this is because I was born with an Overdeveloped Sense of the Ridiculous, a Warped Sense of Humor and a Very Active Smarty-Pants Gland that kicks into gear at odd moments.

So, in an effort to facilitate better global communication, (and because I can’t seem to stop that smarty-pants thing) I decided that it might be helpful if I posted a glossary of specific terms that you might otherwise find a little confusing. Stay tuned, new words are sure to be added later…

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KILN: What you do with your feet in Texas when you see any big creepy looking bug.

SLUMPING: What happens when a wine bottle decides to take a low profile.

THINGAMADOOCHIE: A mechanical part, usually found separate from other mechanical parts.

DOOHINKUS: See “THINGAMADOOCHIE”, Synonyms: THINGEE, LITTLE PIDDLY THING THERE.

PAINTING: What you are not doing while you are glazing a ceramic piece.

My Six Word Biography: Muddy Fingers Making Good Clean Fun!

extreme makeover or touchup paint?

Happy “2K10″ Everybody!

What better way to start the new decade than to find a fabulous post from me, fresh from the old keyboard! Well okay, so an email announcing that you’d won the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes would’ve been better but it wasn’t very nice of you to point that out, was it? Lucky for you that today I had a deeply introspective moment, complete with Random but Great Thoughts and a Brilliant Conclusion, otherwise this would be a really boring email.

Yesterday I found myself wondering what it is about the beginning of a new year that makes people obsess (uh sorry, I meant to say FOCUS) on starting everything over from scratch? (And why it is that when this phenomenon hits your spouse, it usually involves the moving of furniture and the painting of stuff, but I digress….)

So there I was, peacefully collapsed on my couch after another 2 hour session implementing my husband’s Great Upstairs Makeover Plan, when WHAMMO! the obvious connection between business networking and radical home maintenance hit me like a ton of bricks. I mean DUH, right?

In between bouts with a paintbrush, I’ve been spending some time lately evaluating last year’s business performance and considering what changes to make. Tweaking my networking game plan is at the top of my list, especially concentrating on my blogging, newsletter and social networking. But just like you should never go to Home Depot without knowing exactly what materials you’ll need for which project, (are you listening, my beloved husband?) you need to decide on what exact and specific changes you want to make before you set the dynamite and and implode your current networking plan.

There are 50 gazillion business and social networking options out there now and all of them have a slightly different angle of approach. On top of that, there are twice that many sites promising guaranteed “Extra Special Secret Super-Duper No Fail Completely Original Gotta-Have-It Business Strategies” that you simply must add to your plan “that only take an hour a day”…. The problem is that there is still only 24 of those hours in a day and have you looked at your calendar already today?

So I developed my own little 6 point checklist to help keep me from getting sucked into the middle of a scorched earth style, Extreme Business Makeover when all I really need is a spiffy new color scheme and a Touchup Painting on my networking system…

1 – Plan on Paper: Non-negotiable. Writing it all out makes you reeeeaally have to think it all out. The delete button is not your friend here. Read what you wrote. Read it again. Move your lips while you read if it will help you really think about The Plan.

2 – Controlled Spending: Decide how much time you want to spend networking per week AND per day. We’re talking about your real life at this time, not how it’s going to be 3 months from now when you win the lottery, hire a maid, send your spouse to the moon for the duration, get a chauffeur and arrange to be cloned.

3 – Target Practice: Decide which part of your customer base you are targeting and stick to them. Just remember that your most important customer is the one you have already. You just can’t connect with every person in the known universe, so measure twice and cut once!

4 – Limit the Socializing: Seriously, it’s okay NOT to have a Twitter, Facebook, My Space, LinkedIn, Del.icio.us, Digg, Technorati, a business blog, a personal blog AND 3 networking groups every day of the week. Really! …. Pick the 1-3 that best target your market, not every market. Make this plan manageable without some kind of Super Hero Skills.

5 – Play Well with Others: Get an Accountability Partner. Somebody you feel comfortable enough with to help you evaluate how you are doing on your Plan by getting together every week or so to grill you, nag or threaten you when you go off target…. In the nicest possible way of course!

6 – Get a Life: (this is the tough one..) Spending too much time on the computer every day can make you squinty, crabby, smell funny, socially inept without a keyboard in your hand, wear ugly clothes, mismatch your socks and become incapable of spelling correctly or writing complete sentences.  OMG. WMPL.

Okay that’s the end of my Random Thoughts.  Hope you found something here to help you stay on top of your goals… or at least kept you entertained for a few minutes.

TTFN, your BFF4E

playing with pliers again

Multi Color & Copper Wire Wrapped Ring

I used to be normal.

Now it’s kind of embarrassing just how easy it is to make me happy with a little wire and a couple of pairs of pliers!

Everywhere I look there’s something nifty to incorporate into my wire and glass jewelry collections. Jewelry wire of all sizes, dichroic glass, embroidery thread and ribbons, beads and stones…even broken beer, wine and  vodka bottle glass… And no, I didn’t drink them all first.

Anyway, NOTHING is safe in my hands anymore. I’ve just turned into the most ridiculous jewelry making maniac. My husband’s going to start counting the knives and forks soon….

Oops gotta go, I hear my pliers calling!

99 baubles of beer on the wall

Broken Glass Rainbow Teardrop Pendant

Oooh, I have a great time playing with a hammer!

I used to wonder just what it is about the sound of glass shattering that was so emotionally satisfying. It always looked like that Greek wedding plate throwing thing was a ton of fun but since I never heard anything about the cleaning up part, I wasn’t too crazy about giving it a try at home…

Anyway, I have since learned that hammering out my frustrations on some helpless glass is a great stress reliever, even when I’m in a good mood. Of course, it still makes my husband John a little nervous when I’m walking around with that hammer in my hand but I digress…

I’ve been playing around with a rather unconventional line of fused glass jewelry made from broken wine, beer and liquor bottle glass fused with gorgeous dichroic glass. Take a look at the Jewelry Portfolio to see for yourself how gorgeous the jewelry is that comes from these humble (re)sources.

Let’s hear it for creative recycling!

puttin’ the fun in function

Charles' Bowl

I’m not sure what led me to to the idea of combining my functional pottery work with my fascination for fused glass… but wherever the original idea came from, I’m sure it’s one of the best I’ve ever had.

This unique collaboration of clay and glass has really turned my hand built work from just another pretty and functional bowl or platter into original, one-of-a-kind art pieces. But besides all that, they just look COOL!

Check out my portfolios at these links for an overview of some of my recent bowls and platters.

oh wine, oh!

Stemless "Swine Glass"

As my taste buds have matured over the years, I seem to have become a mini-wine snob. For a woman from East Texas this means that I don’t drink wine from a box anymore.

Usually.

Yep, these days I can swirl a reisling with the best of them and even toss words around in public like ‘bouquet’ and ‘pinot noir’. I’m even so upscale that I put the triscuits on a tray now instead of wrestling my husband for the box. But that’s enough bragging…

Now that I’m not  drinking wine from bottles with a screw top, I’ve developed all kinds of nifty new wine appreciation skills. And I’ve created a line of ceramic and fused glass wine accessories to appreciate all these wonderful new wine appreciation skills.

There’s some really neat things in the line like cheese trays, ceramic and glass wine bottle stoppers, wine chillers and even stemless “Swine Glasses” with their little piggy tails on the side. (from my fun Swine Flew collection)

All of the new wine accessories are hand built by little old me and accented with my signature fused glass. They’ll look really spiffy on your party table or make a fantastic gift for some other very groovy wine snob you know.