Has a month really gone by already? sigh. I could blame the lack of posts on a problem getting photos to load from my camera. But of course, posts don't HAVE to have photos. They are much more interesting tho. No need to blame anyone or anything. There. done.

I splurged and bought a new quilt and things for my bedroom. Dear friend Ray, who helped me carry a dresser upstairs last year, looked around at my quilt and pillows and potttery and flowery things and said, your room is awfully girly. I told him it was ok, I'm a girl. If he saw it now, he'd shake his head and say it was even more girly. I think it's just pretty myself - light aqua-blue with roses and lilacs and leaves and lots of white to balance. The only thing I don't like is the off-white walls. Hazards of renting I suppose. But I love the new look! It's light and bright and fresh. and girly - ha!

Some fun things on the horizon - a hands on painting workshop with Chroma for our June Mixed Media Guild event, and the Carolina Mixed Media Art Guild is sponsoring the Triangle's first Indie Business Breakfast on the 6th!

Here's the scoop:

CMMAG is proud to announce the 1st Indie Business Breakfast - Raleigh!

Please join us on June 6th at the John P. "Top" Green Neighborhood Center (401 Martin Luther King Blvd., Raleigh, NC) from 9 to Noon, for Breakfast & Brilliance as we welcome Donna Maria Coles Johnson of the Indie Business Network(http://www.IndieBusinessBlog.com) and Lisa Stewart of EC Stewart Designs(http://www.ecstewart.com) for an intriguing discussion on Using Social Media toLeverage Your Brand and Attract MORE Paying Customers to Your Business! Following the discussion, there will be time for open networking with other highly creative folks! Love what you do? Well, LIVE what you do! This event is a treasure chest of information for the beginning as well as the established artist! Visit: http://indiebusinessbreakfastraleigh.eventbrite.com/ for additional information and registration information. This is a ticketed event, and capacity is limited! Don't miss out -- reserve your space today!

I hope you'll join us!

Lots of wonderfulness!!

So much is going on in my corner of the world, here in Raleigh, NC. The trees have exploded into GREEN and sky is Carolina Blue. Whether you are a fan of UNC or not, the sky here is most definitely a special shade of blue which can only be called Carolina Blue. Spring here is a mixture of "let's sneak one last frost in before we send the heat" and delicious thunderstorms. Not the blow the house away Oklahoma and Texas storms I grew up with, but lots of rain to wash away the yellow pine pollen that tells us that April has come combined with a few good rumbles. When I was a very little girl, I was told that it was the potato man who had overturned his wheel barrow full of potatoes that made the noise. I rather like that memory.

OK - besides SPRING being here, The Carolina Hurricanes are in the playoffs and are headed to NJ for the final game of the quarterfinals. They're playing like men posessed and it's amazing to watch them. I'm not a cradle hockey fan - I grew up in OK & TX, I'm a cradle college football fan, but this year I've discovered ice hockey and our Hurricanes are obliging with wonderful games to watch.

I taught a soldered charm bracelet class to a wonderful group of 5 women at Ornamente yesterday. We laughed and talked and cut and pasted and soldered and jump-ringed ourselves into wonderful projects. I'm not sure which part of teaching is the best - meeting great new people or seeing what direction they take a class project. What FUN!

And last, but far far far from least - The Busy Bee Cafe has opened in downtown Raleigh! www.busybeeraleigh.com (yes, I know, it looks like busy beer) The Busy Bee was a cafe in Raleigh in the 20s and the building has had a few more incarnations, but Chris and Woody have returned her to her fabulous-ness and have an amazing coffee shop-restaurant-rooftop patio-live music stage-bar hang out. It's on Wilmington Street and you MUST go! Dear friend Jackie is the manager of the coffee shop and would you believe, didn't buy flavored syrups to go in her coffee. Nope - she hand crafted each one!! Saturday she made me an almondy-caramely wonderfulness wow! I had lunch there with friends the first week they opened, great food too! They have photos of the old cafe on the walls, exposed brick, lots of wood and an amazing honeycomb scuplture as you first walk in. Check them out and tell them Laurel sent you!

Patti Digh

The weekend started with an amazing event. Cynthia Deis and Panopolie hosting a reading and booksigning with Patti Digh on Friday evening. If you haven't discovered the book, Life is a Verb, it's time! Her blog http://37days.typepad.com/ - truly amazing.

I suppose it's a hazard of the internet - feeling as though you know someone through reading their thoughts, their dreams, their lives - I'm no exception. I felt as thought I'd known her for ages - of course, having 2 close friends who have met her at a previous reading & book signing up in Saluda probalby had a bit to do with it - does that degrees of separation thing still count? Anyway - she's amazing, insightful, genuine, thoughtful and thought provoking, the sort of person you truly do want to know. I'm so very glad to have met her and been able to spend an evening with her at Panopolie.

Please do take time to discover her blog and her book. I hope she inspires you as she has inspired me.

(And yes Patti - page 77 IS magical! THANK YOU!!)

Still on the planet....new class schedule!

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, I updated my blog. sigh.

Yes, I'm still on the planet. I think I spent the late autumn and winter hibernating. Spring has sprung and it's time to be active!

I delivered new class samples to Ndidi at Ornamentea last week - have several different classes coming up:

April 16th - celebrate surviving Tax Day by creating a cool Weathered Bezel
April 26th - I love the Three Charm Bracelet - you can use different sizes and shapes of glass and anything you want sandwiched between the glass (remember - if it doesn't melt - it's fair game!)
May 2nd - this is the class that started our soldering fun - the Memento Pendant
May 23rd - Arabesque - this is a wonderful pendant which incorporates tack-soldered charms or filigree
May 31st - We're creating Brooches today and using Ranger's Alcohol Inks to tint the glass.
June 4th - the Weathered Bezel is back (thank you Stephanie Lee for the inspiration - and yes, I will eventually try it with a torch - but for now, the soldering iron is my best friend!)
June 20th - a new Brooch - with a wonderful large swallow charm

I hope you'll join me at Ornamentea for a class SOON!

www.ornamentea.com for lots more information and inspiration!

Day 3 of Art of the Carolinas

One more day. I keep telling my feet and back - we can make it!!! There is an amazing group of women who make up the Carolina Mixed Media Art Guild. They - We - have been at the North Raleigh Hilton the past 3 mornings at the crack of dawn, ready to flip classrooms (peel painty plastic off the tables, replace it, haul buckets of dirty paint water and fresh clean water, cater to the whims of artist/instructors), manning the ATC tables, manning (womaning?) the Guild info booth. Three of us will have been there for the entire event and we've had many many others coming in and out, adding extra hours to their assignment to help out as we've needed them. Sure, we're slap-happy, sillier than usual, groaning a bit - but all in all it's been a great experience.

We've met some truly amazing people. I'm being just a wee bit silly about whims of instructors - one delightful woman was concerned about one of her students who was elderly and alone and late for class - it's pretty amazing for someone who's no spring chick herself, who's been teaching for 3 days straight to packed classes (told you she was amazing!) to still have the compassion to be concerned about the well being of one of her students.

Students, teachers and vendors are here literally from all over the world. I've met people from France and from Australia. We had the most fun group of women from Alabama make ATCs with us tonight, a husband & wife from VA - he's the artist, but we had her making ATCs right along with us, Jerry's staff and workers - what fun they are!, the hotel staff WOW. If only it wasn't grey and rainy...but that certainly hasn't kept people away at all!

And of course, there's the Trade Show and Sale. I haven't gone totally crazy and am going to check on a couple of booths tomorrow before they pack up and head back home to make sure there isn't something I absolutely have to have. I'm about to enter a painting phase. I'm kind of excited about it :-)

Alright - time for ibuprofen, washing my face, and deep rejuvenating sleep so I can hop out of bed ready for the last day of fun!