I feel so Chihuly

The Dale Chihuly blown glass exhibit at the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco was a marvel. Left is the Macchia Forest, and below, the chandelier room. There were 11 rooms in all. Black walls and ceilings and dark floors were the perfect dramatic backdrop for the beautifully illuminated glass.

I spent most of my time in these 2 rooms. This may sound crazy, but the red chandelier? I wanted to consume it like liquid so it could become part of me. I know that sounds completely bizarre but that is how I felt...isn't art strange! The color of it, the striations in the glass tubes, the power of it...just wanted it to be part of me. No art has made me feel that before. These photos are from Chihuly's website and you can see more photos of this particular installation and others at www.Chihuly.com.

I didn't bother taking a camera and was surprised that snapping pics was acceptable as long as no flash was used. I spied one woman's photo on her camera and with just the lighting in the room against all that black, her shots turned out well, but I figure, hey, I'll just buy the book with the professional shots.

The Art of Chihuly book features this particular exhibit and was for sale at $45 which isn't bad but I told my son I knew I could get it for less online and I did. As soon as I got home, I searched and found a hardback copy still in shrink wrap for only $23 plus $4 for shipping...such a deal. Now I can relive the beauty and emotions whenever I wish.

My dad drove up from the central coast to join me and my son at the museum and he treated us to lunch afterwards in the museum cafe which featured all fresh food, cold & hot, and the prices weren't bad at all. We ate outside in the garden area.

The weather was overcast and wonderfully cool, just right for tee-shirt attire. It was fun to watch birds, from little Brewer's blackbirds to pigeons to one big seagull, munch on whatever lunch bits people dropped, be it on purpose or accidental. From our seats we could see the odd, multi-storied domes of the nearly finished construction of the new Steinhart Aquarium.

The domes are dotted with small round windows or solar panels maybe, and the rest is covered with what looks like moss. In the newspaper today an article stated this quote:"it is supported by recycled steel, insulated with recycled blue jeans and topped with a living roof." Interesting photos can be found here: Steinhart Aquarium.

Well, I highly recommend you visit the Chihuly site above to see if he's going to be near you any time soon. It's something not to be missed!

My 100th post!

Yay, I'm posting less than a week since my previous entry! Made that a goal to keep you all entertained and so far so good. And my reward is that this is my 100th post. Now that's a good omen. I added a visitor counter on July 4th. You can see it at the very bottom of the blog page and in 45 days I've had 187 visitors...not a lot, but I'm just glad people are coming.

Custom bead news following this story:

My husband and I were able to spend a 3 day weekend in Napa with our godson (photo at left of neighborhood cafe) who is two and a half and talking up a storm. He understands concepts now so his reactions and humor are absolute entertainment. A sweet and happy soul with a smile always at the ready along with kisses and hugs upon request!

Sis and her husband were out of town for the historic car races in Monterey...are you aware of these races? Old, old cars built for racing long ago are maintained (with large wads of cash, no doubt) for racing condition! Wouldn't it be something to see them whipping around the track? Sis takes their camper and hunkers down for 2 nights right at the track...wow!

Must be great, but what me and my husband needed was peace and quiet and that's what we got in the midst of huge oak trees surrounding house and pool just above a small vineyard surrounded by hills. Wow was it ever quiet. We did a little snoozing, lots of laughing, and slowly, slowly got our godson to swim.

It was wonderful that he trusted me enough to rest his body on just one of my arms while he flailed feet and legs to catch the big rubber ducky. What a bold one...of course, it took about an hour to go from just feet in the pool and refusals to step down to lower steps to full on swimming...but he got there. One final grab by me when he looked very confident and he let out one big scream....and then had a blast.

On the jewelry front I'm having a couple of spectular custom lampwork glass beads designed as pendants...won't tell you by whom yet as I don't want to create any pressure, but one is a harlequin mask...white face, teardrops from the eyes and an elaborate wavy collar in black and red...nice!

I was also inspired to request a hot air balloon bead after seeing the big balloon upon which Sarah Brightman sang in the Olympic opening ceremony. The balloon bead will be golden yellow with blue Kronos glass as the basket...and you'll seem some Kronos spikes on the balloon as well. Remind to show them to you after I receive them in a few weeks.

I've been reminded that the glass birds (photo above) from the Green Glass Cafe are big sellers in jewelry so I will be working on those designs this week...birdie pendants...yum! The bird pictured here is one of several different styles and color combinations I have.

I know, I know

It's been 2 weeks since I blogged and I hate that! Don't you hate visiting a blog every few days and it STILL isn't updated? Grr....

Here is a batch of beads that is about to become a full set on Etsy. The colors were very surprising together but they work beautifully from the soft gold in the sand dollar, to the bright gold shards on those pink beads (for earrings) to deep purples. Really fun and challenging.

I'll be in Napa again for a long weekend starting tomorrow so I can play Auntie/Godmother to my beautiful nephew. He is 2 1/2 and just the other day when his mommy said my name, he said "I love Julie". As his parents were totally surprised and in awed silence, he said "I love Beto" (my husband). Gosh, how wonderful! Now, who knows if "love" to him just means a person that makes him feel good or if he really gets the love concept but whatever he's thinking, I'll take it! What a sweetheart.

I have loads of cupcake beads I need to form into jewelry, including pendant sets and will focus on doing just that when I get back next week.

Until then, keep cupcaking and checking for more frequent posts from me.

Reach out and touch

I keep checking email today to hear back from my friends, but alas, no responses yet so I'll just reach out and talk to you instead. I like my energy with my new schedule although I haven't yet repeated my first two perfect days on it. But I aim for it daily and am happy that when work hours are over, they are over and I move onto taking care of my family and the household stuff.

My friend Lisa came over to learn about possibly selling on Etsy and her gift to me were 3 big amazing sunflowers! I had just recently visited my sister in the country and we drove by a huge sunflower meadow but just 2 days before, Sis said, all the flower heads dropped to face the ground to go to seed...waaahhhhh I said...so the surprise of these sunflowers was wonderful and well timed.

I visited a Japanese $1.50 store called Daiso yesterday...didn't know it was only 4 miles from my house until Sandy told me...thanks Sandy! It's filled with all kinds of little goodies and only a few are over $1.50...tons of decorative dishware so if you need bento boxes or chopsticks or rice bowls there is an endless array. I got the little tin you see in the photo and it's the perfect size for my business cards just as I'd hoped.

Sandy said she won't go with more than a $20 bill on her first visit so I had to just laugh when I looked at my receipt and minus the tax I had spent exACTly $20...funny. It's just beautiful today. The bay area is finally back to blue skies, mid-70's temps and a cool breeze. For a while I felt like I was living in smoggy China or the achingly heated central valley! The weather over the past three years has taken us away from our very predictable, awesomely fantastic mid-range temperatures...I mean you just don't have central a.c. in my area because until recently we just didn't need it. Now, hop over the hills and 20 minutes away you better hope you have a.c.!

But not here and not in my amazing home town of San Luis Obispo, CA. Gosh, during summers there it was guaranteed fog until 11 a.m. and until 3 p.m. you just soaked up sun in your swimsuit or shorts but were always armed with warmer clothes in case you didn't make it home to change when the fog rolled back in and the cold air swirled through downtown shops. A light sweater in the evening and you were good to go.

So it's taken me two very weird hot summers to finally accept that when we get incredible days like the ones we used to take for granted, they are a grand blessing indeed. Well, I think I got my chat fix. Be sure you check out my previous Iron Cupcake Earth post if you want to win spectacular cupcake prizes being added to the ever growing cache and come back soon because I'm just about to hit my 100th blog post!

Thanks for lettin' me chat atcha.