Beads of Courage Benefit Concert

 
 This great event is first in Beads of Courage's concert series.  I'll be there, seeing the concert, and helping out with volunteers and what-not. 

I'm so excited to see David Grisman again; I've been a fan for longer than I've been working with glass.  This will be my fourth or fifth time seeing Grisman, but I have a feeling this will be my absolute favorite performance of Grisman's.  He's playing to support Beads of Courage, and that makes him an even MORE amazing musician!  Hope to see you there!

Veggies and follow-through

About a year and a half ago, not long after I started this dusty blog, I wrote about building a compost bin, and wanting to start a veggie garden.  

It took me quite some time to really get that going, but that project is officially underway.  

Last winter (2009/10), I planted just a few winter plants: broccoli, cabbage, and brussels sprouts.  This past winter, I planted broccoli again, but the deep freeze in February pretty much killed it off.  The rainbow chard, I planted, however, apparently took the freeze as a challenge.  I put the chard seedings in the ground in November, and now, in June, I still have a regular supply of chard.  To be honest, I'm a little sick of chard, and so are my friends.  I learned my lesson not to plant quite so much next time.   It IS a beautiful plant, though.  

On planting day, March 27

This past March, I decided to expand the garden, to start moving toward growing enough veggies that my grocery bills start to shrink.  After reading a great book, called Extreme Gardening (by Dave Owens) I planned my spring/ early summer raised bed garden.  I found this book to be extraordinarily helpful- a must-have for any desert gardener.  I built three large boxes, and one small one, all filled with compost, and composted mulch.  

I planted the first two boxes on March 27 or so.  

From seed: zucchini, butternut squash, melon (HoneyGirl hybrid), radishes, sunflowers, nasturtium, carrots, basil, dill. 

From transplants: cherry tomatoes, an heirloom tomato, chili peppers, bell pepper, snapdragons, marigold, more basil, more basil... 

The last two boxes were planted at the end of April.  

I wasn't as impressed with the transplants from Home Depot as I was with those planted from seed.  So, this time it was all from seed: more zucchini, 2 varieties of yellow squash, bush beans, cucumbers, cilantro, dill, more sunflowers, chiltepin (a native pepper plant), and thyme.  

On May 30 or so

Now, just a bit more than 60 days after the first planting, I've had a regular supply of veggies, supplementing my deliveries from Matt's Organics.  The radishes were fantastic- and I can't wait to plant more varieties at the end of the summer.  The first zucchini has been making the most delicious, small, sweet, and crunchy zucchinis.  My favorite preparation has been to sautee it, with just a pinch of fennel pollen and black pepper.  mmmm.  Tasty.  

The cherry tomato plants are doing great, though very few have actually made it in the house.  We eat them right out of the garden.  

I'll write more on the garden as it continues to develop.  This long post brings you up to speed on this little project.  I have big plans for this garden- namely, to build 3 or so more areas like this one, so I have a set of raised boxes for each season.  Fruit trees are in the plans too.  I'm a little garden-obsessed these days.  This is pretty fun.  Home grown food, great bug-watching... it's hard to go wrong!  

 

 

 

Open House Nov 6 & 7

Etsy! and Caterpillars!

Yup, that's been my week... Now that the Design Challenge is mostly wrapped up, my focus has been on setting up an Etsy store, and making new Caterpillar beads.  These guys are so much fun to make- mostly done in the flame, with a few little embellishments using vitreous enamels.  I'm working on a long post right now that explains their 'evolution'- expect that in a couple days.  But I couldn't wait to share them, and the new Etsy store. Right now, in the store, you'll find a few of these Caterpillar beads, and another handful of finished jewelry pieces.  I'm adding more this week, and will be sending "New Work Alerts" once I have a bit more added.  So, this is a pre-preview, of sorts? Please, click on over to my Etsy store, and let me know what you think!  

I'm working this week on adding more to my website- more, different caterpillars, earrings, and more jewelry.  Maybe some other new beads too... I have quite a few projects in process, and it's always hard to tell which one will be 'cooked' first.

Expect more from me later this week!  Until then, happy beading!  

Design Challenge Winners!

It has been a tough week making decisions, and tallying votes!  I have to say how amazed I am(and all of the other judges were) by your creativity, innovation, and inspiration in your designs with my beadies.  There were 23 entries, which is more than I expected for this first Design Challenge (yes, there will be more).  THANK YOU for putting your energy, time, and spirit into this Challenge!  

To see the entries, visit my website (captions are coming): 

http://mzglass.com/gallery/54-the-amazing-entries-from-2010

or, if you're on Facebook, check them out here: 

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2085693&id=1536554639

JUDGING: I enlisted the help of 4 other judges: Sara Hardin (Soft Flex master), JC Herrell (bead artist), Janice Zinser (my awesome mom), and Star Vasquez (bead artist).  Each judge picked their first, second, and third best pieces.  We worked a little magic and turned those votes into scores (3 points for 1st, 2 for 2nd, and 1 for 3rd).   All of our choices were between 9 entries, so this was a very close contest.  

So, without further ado, 

The WINNER of the 2010 Design Challenge is Christy Puetz with her amazing seed-beaded Beetle neckpiece, which received 8 points in judging.  Christy will win $600 worth of my work, and a gift from Soft Flex!   

2nd place: AJ Reardon with her "Beetles are Lovely Too" necklace, which received 5 points in judging.  AJ wins $300 worth of MZ Glass goodies!  

3rd place: Gail MacKenzie with her "Tribute to the Red Hot Beetles", which received 4 points in judging.  Gail wins $100 worth of MZ Glass goodies!  

Gail was also selected by Sara Hardin for the 'Best use of Soft Flex and MZ Glass pieces', and will be getting a selection of Soft Flex Trio packs!  

 

The other artists that received scores were Rickie Voges, Valerie Fordham (for her entry #18), Rebecca Moore (for her entries #8 and #10), Elizabeth Fensin, and William Justiniano.  All of these entries had between 1 and 3 points from judging, so you can see how close this contest was!  Every judge commented on how difficult it was to choose winners.  

Again, thank you to ALL of you who entered.  If you didn't win this year (or if you DID win!), it's not to early to start designing for next year's Challenge!  I'm thinking I will have this as a continuing contest- because I LOVE LOVE LOVE seeing my beads become part of your creative process!  Expect details on the next Challenge in the not-so-distant future.