Mixed Media Maven

Cathy Johnston does mixed media so well! I love all of her fabulous little books. The photo shown above is what she'll be teaching at this year's Las Vegas Clay Carnival. In addition to Cathy, we'll have 7 other instructors there too. You can see a list of all the classes and more details on Cathy's website or at our new Carnival site.

In addition to her huge talent, Cathy's also extremely organized. I'm so envious of people who create beautiful and functional storage pieces for their tools. The bamboo handles she created on these are simply stunning!

I'm currently experiencing a bit of what my friend Leslie refers to as "pack stress". I'm leaving for Texas tomorrow and will be home for just a day before I fly to France for a workshop. I'm hoping to be able to post some photos while I'm there. The talent in Europe is absolutely incredible and I'm excited to have the opportunity to meet some of my wonderful online friends in person. This will be my first trip across the pond. I had to miss the one I'd planned for last year after my son developed kidney stones right before I was to leave. Keep your fingers crossed that no one makes any last minute trips to the ER this time!

Lone Star Retreat

I'm looking forward to spending a few days in Texas at the end of the month. The Houston Polymer Clay Guild is holding its annual Lone Star Retreat Sptember 27-29, 2009 at the South Shore Harbour Resort & Conference Center in League City. I'm honored to be one of their guest instructors. They're also hosting Dayle Doroshow (her work shown above) who will be teaching Shimmering Rattle Beads and Barbara McGuire (her work shown below) who's teaching Mokume Gane Collage Pendants.

This guild really knows how to do a retreat! I'm so excited about the things they've planned and looking forward to the opportunity to finally meet some of my Texas clay friends in person. You can learn more about the retreat and the workshops here.

I can't thank you enough for all your nice comments welcoming me back to Bloglandia (thanks Cynthia!). I really appreciate you all and I've missed "seeing" you. It's going to be lots of fun to catch up!

Slightly Red-Faced

Since I'm feeling a little embarrassed that I've been "on vacation" for so long, I thought this would be the best picture to mark the end of my five month long absence.

When I made my last blog entry on April 9th, I had no idea I'd be gone so long. My oldest son was getting ready to graduate from high school and there was a lot going on at the end of his senior year, then it was time to help him get ready for college and all the things that go along with that. It just seemed like the longer I stayed away, the harder it was to come back.

I can only imagine all the wonderful things I must have missed during the last few months. I know there are lots of new books out that I haven't seen and I'm sure I'll never catch up on all the new photos posted by my Flickr contacts. And, believe it or not, I've only visited Cynthia and Susan's blogs once or twice in all that time.

It feels a little strange to have been away from clay for so long. I just finished my first real project in more than 4 months and I'm still not sure what direction to take this blog in.

I just updated my teaching schedule (you can see it to the right of my post) for the rest of 2009 and I'm looking forward to getting back into the polymer clay groove. It would be wonderful to have the opportunity to reconnect with some of you during these upcoming events and I'm hoping I haven't been totally forgotten after so long.